Frank Borelli
Editor-in-Chief
Officer.com

It’s that time of year again: Valentine’s Day. I remember, all too well, working on Valentine’s Day and scrambling around before ending my shift to make sure I had roses to take home to my wife. Oh, yeah… I had to get a lovey-dovey card too. My partner always seemed to know where to find the good deals on roses. He also always made fun of me for the cards I’d get. Apparently I was “too sappy”. Be all that as it may, the one thing it took me longer to learn was the true impact a job in law enforcement could have on a marriage. Read the rest of this entry »

Frank Borelli
Editor-in-Chief
Officer.com

I just finished editing and posting an article from our of our Officer.com contributors and one line he wrote caught my eye: after he’d assisted an elderly gentleman on a flight the man asked him if he was a Marine. He replied that no, he was a police officer. Why did this catch my eye? I had to wonder what he’d done that the elderly man would assume he was a Marine? Read the rest of this entry »

Frank Borelli
Editor-in-Chief
Officer.com

I received this rant via email and felt it was important to share. Today (as I type this) we have an article going live on Officer.com titled “War on Cops” from contributor and officer survival instructor, Kevin Davis. When I read his article I told Kevin I was going to be writing a blog. I started to and then received the following. I felt it was expressive enough and offer it instead. To all my brothers and sisters in law enforcement, stay safe! Do your job professionally and go home at the end of your shift. To the members of the public we serve, please read the following; try to not get angry or resentful; try to take it for what it is: an insight into what we deal with daily and how that silliness still doesn’t slow us down. We still put on the uniform day in and day out to serve and protect YOU - even when we aren’t appreciated for it. We’re not perfect but we challenge anyone to do the job better. Read on. Read the rest of this entry »

Frank Borelli
Editor-in-Chief
Officer.com

Scary times on the streets. In the past 24 hours (as I type this), 10 officers have been shot in the United States. Last year our count for officers killed in the line of duty went UP from 2009 numbers. Now, perhaps more than ever, we need to be vigilant; alert; careful - almost to the limit of paranoia.

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Frank Borelli
Editor-in-Chief
Officer.com

I was just reading today about new laptops that will soon be on the market using the Google Chrome operating system - with no hard drives in them. Even Microsoft predicted, some years ago, that personal computers would eventually evolve to the point where we didn’t store information on a hard drive within the computer itself, but in the virtual world, conveniently accessed by all who were authorized. And therein lies the rub… Read the rest of this entry »

Frank Borelli
Editor-in-Chief
Officer.com

Just recently I was teaching an in-service program about use of force and we were discussing how police officers go about deciding what level of force they should use or, absent any necessary force, how our behavior and actions are dictated. The best and simplest terms I could come up with was this: We’re in the customer service business. We give citizens what they ask for within our power. Read the rest of this entry »

Frank Borelli
Editor-in-Chief
Officer.com

Soldier, Sailor, Airman, Marine, Coastie… all names given to men and women who have stepped up, raised their hand, taken and oath and “written the check”. “A Veteran is someone, who at one point in their life, wrote a blank check payable to the United States of America for an amount up to, and including, their life.” This Veteran’s Day we need to remember the honor of such action and properly express our appreciation to all those who have performed it. Read the rest of this entry »

Frank Borelli
Editor-in-Chief
Officer.com

As the United States Marine Corps celebrates its 235th Birthday on November 10th, 2010, I felt it appropriate to take a look at the Marine Corps’ birth place and recognize the impact it had on our country’s development. Happy Birthday Marines!

Perhaps best known as the birth place of the United States Marine Corps (November 10th, 1775), Tun Tavern was built in 1685 by a man named Samuel Carpenter. When it was built it sat at the intersection of Water Street and Tun Alley in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The name Tun Tavern was a play on words relating the tavern both to the alley it sat next to (Tun Alley) and the fact that the old English word tun was what we called a beer container. So this was a tun sitting on the corner of Tun. Much later, in the 1740s, a restaurant was added on to the tavern. Read the rest of this entry »

Frank Borelli
Editor-in-Chief
Officer.com

Well, it’s happened again: with the passage of Halloween we’ve once again entered The Silly Season - which, for the life of me, I can’t figure out why we call “silly”. The historically documented increase in crime, domestic issues and general insanity are far from “silly”; usually they are at best time-consuming and at worst damned dangerous. Every year the various professional organizations put out their list of recommended things the average citizen can do to reduce the chances of being targeted by criminals. Read the rest of this entry »

Frank Borelli
Editor-in-Chief
Officer.com

When I first became a police officer it was as a Military Policeman in Uncle Sam’s Army. I was issued a wooden baton (often improperly called a “nightstick”), an old Colt Government Model 1911 .45ACP handgun, a bulky radio and a pair of handcuffs. I also got a small cannister of “tear gas” or “mace”. Body armor was a flack jacket and everything was carried in shined black leather no matter what the uniform of the day was. Step ahead just four years and things changed. .357 Magnum revolver instead of semi-auto handgun, polycarbonate baton instead of wood and concealable body armor. It was perceived, at that time, as an improvement. Read the rest of this entry »