Author: Editor

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.
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Basic Law Enforcement Wellness Curriculum Development

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Help us develop a basic curriculum on law enforcement wellness

The current version of the Basic LE Wellness Curriculum can always be found here: https://www.copsalive.com/wellnesscurriculum/

As part of the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association (ILEETA) annual conference being held the last week of March 2014 in Chicago Illinois, several of us are facilitating sessions at the conference in an attempt to develop a Basic Wellness Training Curriculum to be available to everyone in law enforcement.

At the conference, being held at the Chicago Westin Yorktown Center, we will host four breakout sessions and one group panel discussion to draw ideas and create a basic curriculum for future distribution.

In addition to the input from hundreds of ILEETA members we also need your input. We want your ideas, tips, best practices, research and any input that you believe would be helpful or should be included within a basic training program on wellness for law enforcement professionals.

There are several ways to help.

First, you could… Continue reading

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Quiet Your Mind

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soundwavebyjbaerSm Can You Quiet Your Mind? For law enforcement professionals the importance of being able to quiet your mind is critical as the thoughts, ideas, plans and excessive noise in our heads can become overwhelming. Even in their more mild expressions these thoughts can keep us from being focused, attentive, alert and might disturb our sleep. The profession of law enforcement can be quite toxic and contributes many direct threats to your mental and emotional well-being, not to mention your spiritual health. Things like poverty, tragedy, trauma, death and destruction can be overwhelming and thoughts about these things blend with your everyday thoughts to contribute lots of noise in your mind. Your ability to control and “quiet” that noise might become a very valuable tool in the challenge for you to be able to stay alive or to even survive a full career. Those in police work need to learn to calm and quiet their minds in order to stay focused, mentally alert, and safe. We are attaching a written procedure for quieting your mind as well as a 10 minute audio recording to guide you… Continue reading

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Armor Your Self™ Spiritually

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What does it take to Armor Your Self™ Spiritually?

As we prepare for the Spring 2014 publication of John Marx’ new book: “Armor Your Self™: How To Survive A Career In Law Enforcement” we are going to preview some of the information and concepts contained within the Armor Your Self™ book and training program.. This book is meant to provide guidance to all law enforcement professionals and their families about tactics and strategies that can work to protect them and help create a positive quality of life.

The basic premise of this concept is that in order to successfully survive a career in law enforcement one must Armor Your Self™ physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually to strengthen and condition your being to guard against the “hidden dangers” of this very toxic profession.

The spiritual component of this self-protective prevention program is one of the most challenging for… Continue reading

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Consider a Proactive Annual Check In

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Start the New Year with a Proactive Annual Check In

Police work is tough business and it will eat you up if you don’t care for your “self” physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Taking care of yourself mentally and emotionally in law enforcement is usually NOT something you can do alone. Proper care requires Proactive Peer Support, Psychological Services and Chaplains Programs and other support services to be effective.

Police psychologist Jack Digliani has just produced the 5th Edition of his Police and Sheriff’s Peer Support Team Training Manual which he has always made available for free here on CopsAlive.com. He is also recommending that police officers agencies, and other law enforcement professionals consider doing an Annual Proactive Check-In.

What is a Proactive Annual Check In?

The Proactive Annual Check-In (PAC) provides police officers… Continue reading

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A Law Enforcement Christmas

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As the Christmas holiday approaches we would like to say thank you and best wishes to all those who work in law enforcement. Here is some of our favorite material that say so much about our career. Enjoy!

First, is this video Former Ohio State Trooper Bob Welsh Shares His Christmas Eve Story and we are sharing it with you with our very best wishes for a Happy, Healthy and Safe Christmas this year!

My Christmas Eve by Bob Welsh

Bob is a retired cop and expert storyteller. He served in the U.S. Navy and had a 30 year career with the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

I highly recommend his book: Embers From a Storytellers Mind which is also available as an audio CD. Click Here to visit Bob’s website at BobWelsh.com.

Second, here is our favorite poem from PolicePoems.com about the profession: Continue reading

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Blue on Blue: The Ultimate Law Enforcement Tragedy

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blueonbluetragedyThe ultimate tragedy in law enforcement might be when one officer accidentally kills a fellow officer in what has become known as a Blue on Blue Death.

I recently had a chance to speak with an officer who has survived one of these tragedies and his story is as inspiring as it is tragic.

How Would Your Agency Handle a Blue on Blue Death? Continue reading

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Thank You For Your Service!

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On this U.S. holiday for giving thanks we at CopsAlive.com say thank you for your service to all the men and women in law enforcement around the world.

Thank you for your courage.

Thank you for your commitment.

Thank you for your sacrifice.

Law enforcement is a very difficult career and we understand the challenges and adversities you face. We appreciate all of your hard work and dedication.

Gratitude is a very powerful tool. What are you grateful for?

A feeling of gratitude can be created by looking for the good nature of things and events and then by focusing upon the positives. You can create this feeling in yourself and you can use it as a tool to lead others to this awareness

We have assembled a free worksheet on gratitude for you to use this day to examine all the things in your life and career that you are grateful for.

CLICK HERE to download our CopsAlive.com Gratitude Worksheet.

This worksheet was assembled in gratitude for all the men and women in law
enforcement who risk their lives to make our world a better place. Thank you!

The mission of CopsAlive is to save the lives of those who save lives!

Happy Thanksgiving and please Stay Safe and Stay Well! Continue reading

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Don’t Forget to Thank a Vet

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NR-LOD-SM_highesthonor_part1

As the week of Veteran’s Day comes to an end CopsAlive.com salutes America’s veterans and says “thank you” for your service to our country.

Please join us in saying “thanks” to those serving in our armed forces and to our veterans.

To remind you of the kind of people it takes to keep our country safe on foreign shores please watch part I of the NRA Life of Duty video entitled “Highest Honor” Presented by Brownells.

This video is one of their Patriot Profiles presented by the NRA and Brownells on their Life Of Duty Channel website where they profile law enforcement and military heroes with their stories of courage and heroism.

Highest Honor Part 1
Dakota Meyer is a country boy who grew up amongst the corn and tobacco fields in the rolling hills and lush farmland of Columbia, Kentucky. Awarded the Medal of Honor, our nation’s highest honor for courage and valor, he was thrust into the spotlight of celebrity and nothing in his world could feel less heroic or less honorable than that. Continue reading

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Tough Enough?

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ToughEnoughHow tough is tough enough for a law enforcement officer?

Law enforcement is a tough profession. It will beat you up and tear you down, unless you are tough enough to endure all that this job has to throw at you.  So how do you prepare yourself for the job?

How tough do you have to be to work in law enforcement?

Your training for a policing job can be critical to your survival, and it’s not just the training you get in the police academy, it’s about training yourself every day to be sharp and ready for whatever the day will challenge you with. In order to be tough enough for a full career in law enforcement you need to strengthen and condition yourself every day in several ways.

When I say training I’m not just talking about physical fitness training, although that’s a big part of it, I believe that in order to be thoroughly trained for this job you have to strengthen and condition your “self” every day physically, mentally, emotionally as well as spiritually.

The problem with that is that none of us has ever been taught how to strengthen ourselves mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

Some of you might be asking why do I have to strengthen myself spiritually or emotionally for this job?

You will have to discover that answer to that question for yourself but consider the fact that about three times more officers take their own lives than are murdered in the line of duty. Physical fitness alone doesn’t strengthen you in the ways that are necessary to protect you from the demons that would lead you to want to take your own life. If you add in other toxic “hidden dangers” that might assault you in this line of work like… Continue reading

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CopsAlive Promotes Lumosity

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LumosityScienceCopsAlive is promoting Lumosity brain training to our readers in order to encourage future research into brain training for law enforcement professionals.

As part of our Armor Your Self™ training program CopsAlive.com and The Law Enforcement Survival Institute recommend strengthening and conditioning yourself physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually to be better able to survive the rigors of a career in law enforcement.

Lumosity provides an excellent foundation for what we recommend you do for 10-15 minutes a day to Armor Your Self™ Mentally.

Lumosity now has the world’s largest and fastest growing database on human cognition—which currently includes over 40,000,000 research subjects and over 780,000,000 cognitive gameplays. Their scientists mine this data to uncover insights that help them improve the efficacy of the Lumosity cognitive training program.

Because of our work in the areas of wellness and stress management for law enforcement personnel CopsAlive.com requested to participate in Lumosity’s Clinical Access Research & Engagement Program (CARE) which allows us to give away a few trial memberships to Lumosity in order for your to see if it might benefit you.

This means that if you are interested in doing regular daily brain training CopsAlive.com can offer you one month of free access to Lumosity by giving you a special access code. When we run out of the free offers we will be assembling a waiting list of people interested in Lumosity’s brain training for a future collaboration and research project we are proposing to Lumosity.

We will contact you soon to let you know… Continue reading