Category: Plan Your Career

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Getting Broken in on the Job at C.O.P.S.

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Guest Posting By: Brooke McKay, Marketing Coordinator, Concerns of Police Survivors, Inc.

I arrived at C.O.P.S. Spouses’ Retreat the weekend of September 18-21,
2009, at the YMCA Trout Lodge in Potosi, Missouri, after only one month
as the Marketing Coordinator for Concerns of Police Survivors.  I knew
the organization dealt with death, dying, and grief; yet I was not
prepared for what I saw. I was instantly introduced to a young widow who
was there for the first time.  She was 25 years old, just one year older
than me. While I smiled as I meet all the spouses, I could not get the
young widow out of my head.

Part of my job that weekend was to interview… Continue reading

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Line of Duty Death: A Widow’s Perspective

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Join CopsAlive next Thursday July 30th for a live interview with Kelly Young widow of slain Denver Police Detective Donald “Donnie” Young (E.O.W. May 8, 2005).  Detective Young was killed in the early morning hours on Mother’s Day 2005 while working off duty in uniform at a private baptismal celebration.  Young and his partner had asked some young men who were trying to crash the invitation only event to leave, and they became combative, so they were escorted out by Detective Young.  A short time later one of the men came back to the party with a gun and shot both police officers from behind.  Young was shot twice in the back and once in the head and was killed while his partner, Detective John “Jack” Bishop was wounded but saved by his bulletproof vest.  The suspect 19 year old Raul Garcia-Gomez fled the United States to Mexico and was involved in a lengthy court battle… Continue reading

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Keeping Your Edge – Homework for Cops

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What are you doing to keep your edge as a cop?  Sure you went through the police academy, you probably have some sort of annual retraining and maybe you even get some occasional roll call training, but what are you doing to keep your professional edge?

Let me offer a couple of resources for you.  I was speaking to a group of over 150 police officers and sheriffs deputies last week and asked how many of them read the FBI’s Law Enforcement Bulletin.  I was shocked to find that none of them did.  The Law Enforcement Bulletin is a monthly magazine that many law enforcement agencies around the world subscribe to and at least at my agency are posted or passed around for everyone to read.  They also have a free online version… Continue reading

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Successful Cop: Lt. Christopher A. Manos, CPP

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Check out this weeks newest teleseminar and live web training with a continuation our our Successful Cop Series. This week’s guest is Lt. Chris Manos, CPP a 27 year veteran of the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office in Colorado.

Currently Chris is the Administrative Lieutenant in the Detention Facility but he has worked as a patrol deputy, Crime Prevention Deputy, Investigator and Sergeant. Prior to his law enforcement career he served in the United States Air Force as a Law Enforcement Specialist. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice and a Masters Degree in Management. In his free time he works as a professional magician… Continue reading

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The Traumas of Law Enforcement – There is Hope!

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As editor of CopsAlive.com I just finished attending the 3-day “Traumas of Law Enforcement” seminar put on by the Concerns of Police Survivors (C.O.P.S.) organization, and despite the depressing nature of what is happening to our profession I left with a sense of hope that there are so many dedicated people out there making things better for those who come after them.  If you are interested in this seminar after reading this blog there are still two more sessions of this valuable program still to be presented this month but you must act fast by visiting the C.O.P.S. website to learn about locations and dates.  There is no registration fee for these programs but registration is MANDATORY!  In our session we had over 110 attendees from around the United States with a variety of sworn and non-sworn personnel including supervisors, chaplains dispatchers and peer support team members. Continue reading

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Cops and Superstitions

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Today’s date 08/08/08 apparently has so much power as a lucky number that the Chinese Olympic Committee actually picked today as the date of the opening ceremonies for the Summer Olympic Games with a starting time of 8:08:08 PM!

Are you superstitious? Continue reading

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Successful Cop: Chuck Rylant

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I recently had the opportunity to interview a police officer who really has planned for success in his life and his career.

Chuck Rylant began his law enforcement career in 1998 with the Lompoc Police Department in California. During those four years, he worked in a patrol car and later as a field training officer. While working graveyards on patrol, he chipped away at his bachelor degree by taking one class at a time. Looking back, he can remember struggling to stay awake while doing homework between 3:00 AM – 6:00 AM when there were only a few calls during his patrol shift. Unfortunately, he went through a divorce and had to put off finishing college for a couple of years while he got his “life in order”. Continue reading

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When Will You Retire from Your Police Career?

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As a working cop have you thought about when you are going to retire? Maybe you have a fixed police retirement date that’s not within your control or maybe you can plan your own date but haven’t even started to plan for it yet. Maybe you are like many other police officers in that you feel that you will never be able to retire and that they will find you withering away in your patrol car at age 95.

I’d like to ask you to consider another factor and that is how long can you stay successful in the job? How long can you tolerate the stress and demands of the job and still perform it at a level that you know is acceptable? I don’t think the financial planning aspect and the personal health planning aspect of this decision need to be or even should be separate. Continue reading

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What’s Really Killing Cops?

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Have you ever stopped to ask what’s really killing us?  I’m not so sure the answers are as important now as the right questions.  But a BIG questions are in doing a little threat assessment on our careers.

What’s the biggest threat to a police officer’s life?  Is it being murdered by some felon?  Is it a terrorists bomb?  I think the biggest threat is the one most of are not facing head on – Stress and all of it’s side effects. Continue reading

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What Will You Do With Your Life?

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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.

What will you do with your life? Will you become one of the best cops in the world or will the job take it’s toll on you? CopsAlive will ask questions of you and of the experts on your behalf. We will consider the true threats to your life and ask you to conduct threat assessments for your life, health and career. Continue reading