Category: CopsAlive News

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Research Participants Needed ASAP

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UPDATE: This study has been expanded to include events within the last 10 years and the study window has been lengthened by one week! DOWNLOAD THE NEW FLYER BELOW.

The Law Enforcement Survival Institute is supporting the doctoral research project of a graduate student in the Helms School of Government at Liberty University. The purpose of this research is to explore multi-jurisdictional active shooting incident communication. We we are looking for law enforcement officers who have responded to a multiagency response active shooting within the last 5 years; it can be from any form of department (tribal, municipal, state) as long as they arrived at the scene and experienced communication of some sort (radio, talking to other departments).

To participate you will need to take:
A screening questionnaire online (2 minutes)
A scheduled encrypted interview (45-60 minutes)
Questionnaire (10 minutes on their own time)
And provide an oral narrative (15 minutes on their own time)

Deadline to participate is Friday June 28, 2024

Please pass this information along if you know someone who meets these criteria.

Thank you for your help!

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A NOTE FROM THE RESEARCHER: Continue reading

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Eric Potterat’s new book: Learned Excellence

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Law Enforcement Survival Institute Associate Director Eric Potterat, PhD has just announced the pre-release of his book Learned Excellence with co-author Alan Eagle the former Managing Director, Sales and Executive Communications at Google, Inc.

Learn how to perform at your very best, from the psychologist who has advised elite military operators, Olympic medalists, big wave surfers, neurosurgeons, cliff divers, first responders, Cirque du Soleil acrobats, professional athletes and coaches, Fortune 500 business executives, and CIA analysts.

Learned Excellence is a comprehensive and practical guide to the mental disciplines of high performance, from the expert who developed the US Navy SEALs mental toughness curriculum and has worked with thousands of top athletes, elite military personnel, business executives, and first responders.

To Pre-Order Your Copy CLICK HERE

These stars perform across a wide variety of fields, but they all have something in common: when they are at work they know how to… Continue reading

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Wellness Focused Policing

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The world needs healthy cops!

The world EXPECTS healthy cops!

The Law Enforcement Survival Institute is proposing a new policing initiative we call Wellness Focused Policing.

Wellness Focused Policing is a people focused policing strategy to promote wellness within law-enforcement first, and then to spread that sense of care, and focus on well-being, outwardly to the people served by the police.

When we are appalled by police officers doing things that are abhorrent and we want to fix the entire profession with new legislative initiatives, I think our society is focusing on the wrong solutions and those solutions might actually hurt the first responders who are doing everything right.

First, I believe that in order to be effective, change in policing practices must come from within the policing profession itself, and secondly, I believe the solutions lie in leading the people working within the profession to be their best, then supporting and sustaining exceptional performance. We must challenge everyone within the profession… Continue reading

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A Season of Giving

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A Season of Giving

Today is Giving Tuesday and in this season of giving, I would ask that you consider supporting some of the many organizations that support law enforcement. Here are some I recommend:

Concerns of Police Survivors (C.O.P.S.)
Each year, between 140 and 160 officers die in the line of duty and their families and co-workers are left to cope. C.O.P.S. provides… Continue reading

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NEW Armor Your Self Study & Discussion Guides

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Armor Your Self 5 book study package for small groups or book clubs.For those of you who loved the Armor Your Self book, but wanted to share that information with your peers, the Law Enforcement Survival Institute has just released several different Study & Discussion Guide Packages designed to assist individuals, small study groups and law enforcement book clubs.

The two study packages, built around the book Armor Your Self: How to Survive a Career in Law Enforcement, include either 5 or 10 copies of the Armor Your Self: How to Survive a Career in Law Enforcement resilience building textbooks. These collections are a Do-It-Yourself package for book clubs, small groups or academy classes that can’t afford more expensive training, but want to explore the Armor Your Self textbook more deeply. These two packages include… Continue reading

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LESI Launches new Do-It-Yourself Armor Your Self Training Curriculum

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The Law Enforcement Survival Institute has just released two Do-It-Yourself Small Agency Curriculum Packages, to assist academy classes or small agencies that can’t afford more expensive training programs.

These two packages, based on the book Armor Your Self: How to Survive a Career in Law Enforcement, include either 10 or 20 copies of the Armor Your Self: How to Survive a Career in Law Enforcement resilience building textbooks, plus a 148-page training curriculum that licenses your agency to facilitate the Armor Your Self basic training program in-house for your personnel. The package includes a full, six-session, basic training curriculum PDF with six individual session lesson plans, a set of 80 PowerPoint slides for each lesson, activities and discussion questions, plus… Continue reading

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Fort Collins Police Services is seeking a full time Police Psychologist or Mental Health Specialist

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Our friends at the Fort Collins Police Services (FCPS) is seeking a full time Police Psychologist or Mental Health Specialist. The position provides confidential counseling to all staff, crisis intervention services, supervises the peer support team, and provides training to many areas of the department. The successful candidate will have clinical and crisis‐management experience as well as training, presentation, and leadership skills.

For years Fort Collins Police Services has been a leader in providing the best in law enforcement psychological services and they have employed a full‐time in‐house Police Psychologist for over 30 years. Their Peer Support Team began operation in 1986. As a result, they have created an atmosphere of self‐care and acceptance of mental health services. Psychological services are fully integrated into their system including proactive intervention to support staff after a critical incident. Most recently, they’ve added bi‐annual voluntary mental health check‐ups for all staff, and this program has been very well received. Due to the pending retirement of their outstanding Police Psychologist Dan Dworkin they now have an opening.

Minimum Qualifications:
Master’s degree… Continue reading

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Researching Moral Injury in Law Enforcement

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EDITORS NOTE: The Law Enforcement Survival Institute was approached by The University of Colorado Colorado Springs School of Public Affairs about promoting a new research project investigating the concept of moral injury within law enforcement.  The findings from this project entitled: Advancing Officer Wellness: A Study of On-Duty Experiences and their Impacts among Law Enforcement Professionals, can be used to raise awareness of officer’s experiences and to develop programming that supports officer wellness. The Law Enforcement Survival Institute wholeheartedly supports this very interesting research and we encourage you to investigate further, join the project, and help us spread the word to others.
Here’s some information to get you started and you can connect with the links below:

Purpose Statement: In light of the stresses of police work, recent years have brought heightened attention to the tolls of the job on individual officers. These can include illness, mental and behavioral health challenges, and even suicide. There is thus a strong push for proactive efforts to advance health, wellness, and resilience among officers. This study seeks to support and advance those efforts.

Background: Policing professionals face traumatic and morally injurious events in the line of duty. the effects of trauma and moral injury can include posttraumatic stress, depression, anxiety, suicidality, substance misuse, spiritual and religious struggle, and more. This study is an important step in bolstering resilience among those working in the policing profession. Findings can be used to raise awareness of officer’s experiences and to develop programming that supports officer wellness…

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Five Critical Trends Impacting Law Enforcement in 2022

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EDITORS NOTE: Earlier in the year we created a Trends Report for some of our clients and now would like to make it available to everyone who reads CopsAlive.com. While some of the statistics might be getting a little dated, the trends are holding strong. Please add your comments in the box at the bottom of the article.

CLICK HERE if you would like to download an executive summary of this report.

Introduction
There are a number of negative forces at work on the law enforcement profession right now that have never had such a powerful influence. These factors at their face value are menacing but it is the lesser seen damage that is truly hurting our profession, and its people, right now. What’s worst is that these effects will ripple through our industry for years to come.

The Law Enforcement Survival Institute has identified five trends in law enforcement and policing that are causing major shifts in the way we mobilize our personnel and provide our services. This report does not focus on the CAUSE of these trends but rather the EFFECTS these trends have on the well-being and performance of law enforcement personnel.

Some have labelled these trends as critical issues and others have called them a crisis. This report is not intended to get you to focus on these five discouraging trends but rather… Continue reading

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Choosing and Change

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Choosing and Change by new CopsAlive Contributor
Tammy Featherstone, Sgt. (retired)

Growing up in a strict, conservative, Southern Baptist home came with many challenges. In addition, I was not a conventional girl. I loved being outdoors, playing sports and “rough housing”. I realized early on I didn’t view things the same way my parents did. My father was misogynistic and reminded my sister and I, more frequently than I care to remember, that he was the “head of the house”. I challenged my father quite a bit growing up. It didn’t work out so well for me. I can’t explain the feeling of being a small child and being hit by a grown man.

There were constant conflicts… Continue reading