When you ask the average citizen what they think a state highway patrol officer does during his shift, they’re likely to tell you that the officer sits along a highway, points a radar gun at oncoming traffic, and then chases down speeders to write tickets.

While yes, state troopers do enforce traffic laws and give out tickets to those who break the law, that’s just a small part of what they do every day.

One of the essential things state highway patrol officers do is manage and investigate traffic accidents, especially if the accidents occur on multiple-lane thoroughfares. State officers are likely to be the ones to direct traffic away from the scene of the incident, and state investigators are usually the most experienced when it comes to determining the actions that led to the accident.

State officers have been known to transport victims with non-life-threatening injuries to hospitals in the event that there are not enough ambulances are available, or to transport home those victims of the crash whose vehicles have been disabled and who have no other way to return to their homes.

State patrol officers also spend much of their time helping motorists who have a flat tire or other problem with their cars. By stopping and putting the patrol car with flashing lights behind the disabled vehicle, they make the situation safer for everyone involved by making drivers of oncoming vehicles aware of a problem ahead. The troopers can help the drivers contact a tow truck or other services that can help them get the disabled vehicle away from the flow of traffic.

Many times, especially in more rural situations, the state trooper is the first person to arrive on the scene of any reported crime. Troopers go through extensive training to be able to identify the type of situation they are facing upon arriving at a reported crime scene. The troopers usually are the ones who provide vital intel to later-arriving first responders or police about what they will face when they arrive on the scene.

In many of those cases, the state troopers also handle the actual investigation of the crime. Most state police departments have troopers who specialize in crime scene investigations, evidence collection, and other key parts of the investigative process. Many of […]

The men and women who fight fires every day are always hoping for new advancements in technology that would make their work easier, and more importantly, safer than it is today. Here are five revolutionary technological advancements that are on the cutting edge of fire safety, and could help firefighters save lives.

1. Virtual reality

One of the most groundbreaking technological revolutions, virtual reality is positioned to make firefighters’ lives easier and safer by allowing them to train without actually having to fight a real fire.

“Virtual reality will give us the opportunity to immerse students into real incidents, allow them to see outcomes and develop critical thinking skills,” says Dan Wright, owner of Wright Public Safety Consulting and Training. “I believe it will disrupt the training model as we know it.”

So how does it work? Virtual reality can place a training firefighter into any scenario, complete with a 360-degree field of vision. That means training officials can surprise the firefighters with any kind of complication during their emergency scenario, including something coming up on them from behind. This will allow them to execute an infinite amount of training scenarios without having to spend the money to build multiple training locations. Plus, it allows firefighters to train safely.

With virtual reality, not only can firefighters enter virtual environments – they can use virtual tools like hoses and axes to douse flames, breach walls, ventilate a fire room or rescue people.

2. Portable ultrasound devices

Portable ultrasound devices, which are currently being tested in the field, are intended to help fire-based EMTs the ability to make better assessments in heart, lung and abdominal cases. The device allows them to feed better information back to their command center or a nearby hospital, giving doctors the opportunity to help them in the field.

3. Drones

When a fire unit arrives on the scene of a major fire, information obtained quickly by drones for the firefighting crews can not only help them quickly extinguish the flames but increase safety by showing areas too dangerous to enter.

Using a drone, a fire technician can hover over the scene, provide up to the second intel for firefighters on the ground and direct rescue personnel should someone be discovered inside actively dangerous areas.

Because drone technology is advancing rapidly, the cost to […]

Ah, social media: the daily time-sucking tools that have ended friendships over petty squabbles, made celebrities of people who just put the right picture on the right social media account at the right time, and showed us that cats can be pretty darn grumpy.

But while many people look at social media as some kind of lightweight thing that is a part of their daily lives without much real impact, websites and apps like Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, and others are becoming a valuable tool for law enforcement.

Initially, many law enforcement organizations used Facebook and Twitter as a means of improving their community image. It was a way to interact directly with citizens to inform them of upcoming events, warn them of dangerous weather conditions or traffic hazards in their jurisdictions, or even just dispel the myth some try to perpetuate that police officers are always serious and out to “get you.” In that vein, social media has been a very successful public relations tool for departments.

Departments have also used social media pages as a form of cyber “tip line.” They can post photos of people who are being sought for crimes or who have missed court dates, along with contact information for someone to report the whereabouts of those people of interest.

But it’s not just in those limited ways that social media has developed into a useful tool for officers.

An example of one of social media’s uses to law enforcement comes from Lincoln, Nebraska, in 2017. The Lincoln Journal Star reported on the disappearance of a 24-year-old woman named Sydney Loofe. She had been reported missing, so investigators started combing through her social media accounts to find “breadcrumbs” that led to the discovery of her body.

A retired Lincoln police investigator, Larry Barksdale, told the Journal Star a digital footprint that gives police “breadcrumbs” is more than just tracking cell phones like you see on television or in movies.

“It also includes information from online apps such as Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat, from credit card purchases or ATM visits, and from cameras along the state’s highways, outside gas stations or inside businesses,” Barksdale said, showing the importance of social media to the investigative process.

But it’s not just in the case of a missing person that social media […]

In this day of social media, with everything police officers do at risk of being observed and recorded by the public, it’s more important than ever that law enforcement engage in effective communication techniques. The actions of officers in dealing with the public, with government officials, and even with each other can inadvertently escalate situations in which effective communication would alleviate the problem.

The first step in having effective communications in a police department is to have an established process for communications when an incident takes place. This process should lay out step by step the actions officers should take if they find themselves in a situation where communication with superiors or the public is necessary beyond normal daily interaction.

For example, if you have an officer at an incident who has gathered information that is vital to other officers responding to the situation, they should know who their immediate superior is in order to report the information. That superior, in turn, should have clear instructions about whether to contact the department chief, or the public information officer, or commanders of specialized units.

The policy should be taught to every member of a department and also maintained in some kind of software version that records the acknowledgement of officers that they have seen and read the process.

The second step is for leadership to be proactive in its development of communication plans and revision of them as community situations change. In many cases, it would be of benefit to a department to have a crisis communications team in place for major situations.

This crisis communications team would have members with clearly defined roles that would be aimed to streamline communication of vital information during incidents such as mass shootings or natural disasters. The team should have a designated communications point person for internal communications as well as a single spokesperson who would be the only one authorized to deal with the public and media. That would allow your officers to know they can focus on the situation at hand without having to be pestered by reporters or nosy onlookers.

It’s also essential to have a plan to set up press conferences and regular information releases so media outlets will back off from pressuring rank-and-file officers for more information. If the media […]

As we take a look at challenges facing rural law enforcement, we do have to make the disclaimer that no two rural police departments are the same, and while many will face similar challenges, not everything that is mentioned in this article necessarily applies to your local rural police force.

Most people don’t know that according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, roughly three out of every four police departments serve a community of fewer than 10,000 people and that these rural and small-town departments employ about 54 percent of the nation’s sworn officers as of 2013. About half of the departments have fewer than 10 officers.

This means one of the biggest challenges that face law enforcement is covering their community when they have a small force of officers. Despite television shows that make rural areas appear to be idyllic crime-free areas, FBI crime statistics show that while crime rates are lower than in urban areas, they are on the increase when compared to previous years. In some cases, such as drug-related crimes, the crime rates between urban and rural areas can match.

Because smaller areas produce less tax revenue, many rural police chiefs find they have to run a budget that is very strict in controlling overtime and other costs, making it difficult for departments to keep staffing at effective levels during times of high call volume. Recent statistics show that rural police make do with an average per-officer expenditure of about half that of their urban counterparts. In some rural departments, the budget restrictions are so intense that they have to pay for their own uniforms and weapons.

This brings in a second problem for rural police departments: Officers who have more training and experience tend to gravitate toward departments that have more resources and can provide more safety equipment and safer situations. For example, many rural departments are forced to have officers patrol alone; this means backup in a dangerous situation could be too far away at critical moments. The rate at which rural police officers are killed in the line of duty is almost double that of the largest urban police departments.

That risk to officers rises in some rural departments because of the size of their jurisdictions. For example, some counties in Arizona are […]