Click here to download the catalog as a PDF file. To view this site you need Adobe Flash Player and your browser must allow javaScripts. Go here to get the latest Flash Player. ROY hUNtINGtON INsIdER RUMInATIOnS “One of many tough assignments i had to deal with.” The CyCle W e’re seeing it again. Budgets are getting cut, equipment upgrades ignored, new armor left un-bought, practice ammo gone, new gun bids shut down, old beat-up beat cars asked to go one more year, training time cut or eliminated — you know the drill. If you’ve been around more than a few years, you’ve seen it happen. It’s happening again, and it gets people killed. I joined the San Diego PD in the late 1970s. Vests were still relatively new technology and we didn’t even have to wear them. Ammo was lead .38 Special, the SWAT team was something we hardly ever heard anything about, much less used for much. We handled most of the stuff ourselves. Our armor usually consisted of the cotton of our duty uniform shirts, backed up by 18 rounds of .38s on our gun belts. San Diego policed with a small town mentality — but was a big city — and we were about to be reminded of it. In the early 1980s, officers suddenly started to get killed. When the dust settled, seven San Diego officers had been murdered on duty. Suddenly, money “appeared” for new body armor, training, ammunition upgrades, more portable radios, mandated twoofficer beat cars in some areas, upgraded communications technology, an air-support unit, K-9s and the list goes on. One moment there was no money, then suddenly money was being thrown at this “problem.” City officials had been warned more cops needed to be hired, new technology needed to be adopted, training needed to be updated, etc. but hands were wrung and heads shaken. “Maybe next year.” Then the cops started dying. So, did we learn from it? Actually — yes. Since those days, with very rare exceptions, training has been exemplary on the San Diego PD. Money is spent — even when it hurts — and vests are upgraded, cars are purchased, new radios bought, training mandated and made current to meet new threats and crimes, and an “advanced officer training” routine is maintained INsIdERRUMInATIOnS with all officers mandated to attend three day training blocks regularly. Officer deaths have been kept at a minimum and crime in San Diego remains at an all time low in spite of frighteningly low numbers of officers. But will the thousands of agencies across the country remember these kinds of lessons? I doubt it. Hands will be wrung, heads will shake and the “maybe next year” comments will be heard. If a miracle occurs — and I want a miracle to occur — no cops will get killed because of a lack of funded training, poor ammo, outdated body armor, police cars with 150,000 miles on them or radios that don’t work when they need to. But if your agency is one of those thousands slashing budgets as we speak, keep your head screwed-on tight and your brain working overtime. It’s time for oldtime police work. Don’t rely on technology to bail you out of something — it might not be there for you. And that training you hardly paid attention to in the past? Dig deep and try to remember, refresh, re-read, buy the video and do what it takes to stay current. Remind yourself what “Contact and Cover” is and do it. And read John Russo’s Officer Survival column in this issue about that very thing. But we’ll try one more time to make those in command understand the problem. Once, when I was about to buy a cheap socket set, an old guy standing next to me in the store said, “I know it’s hard, but be prepared to spend more than you want to on something, but never less than you should. You’ll never regret the investment in better quality, even though it hurts a bit at the time. In the long run, it always saves time and money.” And lives. Are they listening? INsIdERRUMInATIOnS Continues on page 69 WWW.AMERICANCOPMAGAZINE.COM • MAY/JUNE 2009 70