John Marx was a Police Officer for twenty-three years and served as a Hostage Negotiator for nineteen of those years. He worked as a patrol officer, media liaison officer, crime prevention officer and burglary detective. Also during his career he served as administrator of his city's Community Oriented Governance initiative through the police department's Community Policing project. Today John combines his skills to consult with businesses about improving both their security and their customer service programs. John retired from law enforcement in 2002. When one of his friends, also a former police officer, committed suicide at age 38, John was devastated and began researching the problems that stress creates for police officers. He decided he needed to do something to help change those problems and he wanted to give something back to the profession that gave him so much. He started a project that has evolved into CopsAlive.com. Put simply, the mission of CopsAlive is to save the lives of those who save lives! CopsAlive.com gathers information, strategies and tools to help law enforcement professionals plan for happy, healthy and successful careers, relationships and lives.

Welcome to CopsAlive.com

CopsAlive works in cooperation with The Law Enforcement Survival Institute to bring useful tools, ideas and strategies to police professionals who want to plan happy, healthy and successful lives and careers.
Law enforcement is the most noble profession in the world.  Police officers deserve the very best the world has to offer as thanks for their valuable service to the world.  Lots of money, time and resources are spent to help cops protect themselves on the job.  Most of it is focused upon “officer survival” strategies that protect officers, deputies, constables, and correctional officers from armed assaults.  A true threat assessment of a career in law enforcement reveals that there are many other threats and some of them are more serious.  This site is dedicated to finding anything that will help cops successfully navigate their careers and survive in mind, body and spirit to enjoy the rest of their lives in peace no matter when the end of their career arrives.
I had a friend and fellow retired officer commit suicide last year.  I didn’t realize how bad the police suicide stats were until I started doing some research.  cops have very high suicide rates and lots of other health challenges.  I think we would all acknowledge that we as a group have a high rate of alcoholism and divorce and maybe even financial problems.  CopsAlive.com is here to work with you and to help you plan to have happy, healthy and successful lives and careers.

Good luck and stay safe!

Who is the Best Cop in the World?

Who’s the best cop in the world?  If I asked you about goal keepers, first basemen, quarterbacks or long distance runners you might have a faster and more opinionated answer.  I’m not sure anyone can answer the question of who’s the best cop.  First your mind raced to the issue that we are all on one team and it isn’t appropriate for one person to stand out.  Or, your mind challenged the fact that it would be like comparing apples to oranges.  What would we compare?  Would we count the number of arrests or measure physical fitness?  Would we analyze time spent on calls, number of traffic tickets or conviction rates?  Part of the problem is that we over analyze instead of just asking the questions about how to be better cops, and to do that some great role models would be helpful.  Continue reading