Law enforcement is a difficult job. Not many people would argue with that. Today’s 24-hour news cycle and the proliferation of citizen video journalism has allowed an ever-closer view into the outwardly visible world of police officers like never before, but the average citizen remains unaware of the actual processes, rationale, and training that inform and dictate how our police departments respond to today’s critical incidents.

I wanted to shed light on some of the inner-workings of public safety, and talk about the purpose behind various processes of the very difficult job done every day by the men and women of law enforcement. To do so, I interviewed my friend and former colleague Dave Klug, now a 22-year veteran police lieutenant, whose career (still ongoing) has already given him a wide range of experiences, including working in patrol, as a detective, in narcotics, internal affairs, and even SWAT. In addition to this real-world experience, Dave also happens to hold a Master’s degree from UC Irvine in Criminology, Law & Society, and he has completed graduate studies in public policy from Cal State Long Beach. Needless to say, Dave was the perfect person to interview about this topic!

In this episode, we discuss:

The importance of good training
The multi-factored problem of errant police shootings
How the societal issue of implicit bias impacts law enforcement
The internal affairs process, and what actually happens when a complaint gets filed against an officer
The challenging problem of police response to mental health related incidents
How police are training to respond to the continuing epidemic of mass shootings
Prevention of school violence, and what our kids can do to help
What the war on terror looks like, at a local level

I hope you enjoy this show as we dig deep into the purpose in the process of public safety!

Listen to this episode now on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

Links and More Information on this Topic:

Harvard’s free online implicit bias test. Try it - you might be surprised by the results! Also, here’s an article from the National Institutes of Health on how implicit bias impacts the medical profession, and an American Bar Association article addressing the issue from a legal perspective.

LAPD’s YouTube channel, featuring (among other things) critical incident videos released to inform the community about what occurred long before such videos would have normally have been released under previous policies.

The full FBI report on active shooter incidents in 2016-2017.

Here’s an informative video from the city of Houston on the “Run Hide Fight” tactic we discussed. Here’s a video on the ALICE protocol for responding to active shooter incidents that was referenced as well.

While the majority of Dave’s time is spent serving the public, he also makes himself available in an off-duty capacity to assist businesses and other organizations who want to take prevention and preparation for handling the worst case scenarios like those we discussed in today’s episode to the next level. You can reach out to Dave directly, at dave@actusamerica.com.

I hope you enjoyed this very important episode of the podcast, and maybe even heard something that will improve your personal safety, and that of your loved ones. You can sign-up to learn first about upcoming guests, special shows, and inside news by entering your email address in the form below. Don’t forget to subscribe wherever you get the podcast and if you like the show, leave a review and tell a friend - thanks!!