If there is one police interview question that you must answer correctly during your interview, it will be the one relating to the use of deadly force. Your police oral board will place great emphasis on this question because if you are not willing or able to use deadly force, then quite simply, you will be considered a liability that cannot be hired.

Now, I do not mean “liability” in the negative way it sounds, but you will be a liability not only to the police department that you are applying to, but to yourself as well. As a police officer, I do not want to hire anyone that cannot tell me for certain that they can and will use deadly force when and if it becomes necessary.

The cold, hard fact about police work is that you are very likely to be placed in a deadly force situation sometime during your career. You have to be ready to let your police interview panel know that you have accepted that you may have to take a life on the very first day of the job, should it become necessary.

This is usually the police interview question that causes many people to fail their oral exam. Of those that fail this question, they are either against taking the life of another or they are just too afraid to tell the police interview panel that they would take a life when they are presented with a deadly force scenario question during the oral board.

The bottom line is that police officers are expected to take a life when it becomes necessary. Don’t be afraid to convey this to the police oral board panel.

You might have seen it before – you are traveling along the interstate and you see a police officer in his car shooting LIDAR out of their driver’s side window. Perhaps you’ve even spotted an officer targeting through his windshield or via the side-view mirror?

The question is: can law enforcement officials employ LIDAR from inside their car or truck? In short, Yes!

Police laser, officially named LIDAR is an acronym for LIght Detection And Ranging. Among the laser jammer online community, ‘laser’ can be the more frequently used term, but LIDAR is equally acceptable. Police laser guns may look complicated and daunting, though with a bit basic familiarity with math along with an example or two, anyone can understand how it performs strategies to, then defend against it.

Overall, police laser (LIDAR) guns calculate speed by using infrared light to measure distance a few hundred times (in just a few seconds). The genius of police laser guns, compared to radar guns, are how the laser beam concentrates onto an extremely tiny area that it can only focus on one automobile at a time. Officers would like to be in a position to locate one exact vehicle, and the laser gun’s little beam enables them to do so. Light beams broaden when they travel; they may start as small as a pin as soon as they leave the laser gun. Even so, after 1000 ft, the beam is just about six ft wide, still small enough to focus on only one automobile.

Many officers running speed enforcement with LIDAR choose to sit perpendicular towards the road and shoot at oncoming traffic from their driver’s side window. Why would they do that from the inside of their car? You can find 3 major reasons:

1. Laser guns are heavy!

Although they might not look like it, a good number of laser guns have state-of-the-art and heavy innards, which can put pressure on an officer’s hands and arm if he or she is shooting for an lengthy time. For this reason, some officers will in addition utilize a tripod or rest the LIDAR unit on top of their car and target vehicles from behind the car.

2. LIDAR guns have to be steady

Most people have certainly not used police laser in the past, therefore they do not understand how tricky it may be to truly concentrate on a car coming from a sizeable distance away. To acquire a speed reading, the officer needs to maintain your car or truck targeted for about a second and keep from ‘sweeping’ sideways. Sweeping or abrupt movements could very well give an incorrect speed readout.

3. They are ready to go

At the time a police officer gets a speed readout, he needs to then go chase the speeder! If he’s already seated in the car, he’ll be able to just put his car into drive and turn on their red and blue lights. If he’s standing outside of the vehicle, he had to open up his car door, get inside, and then pull out, leading to lost time and quite possibly a missed ticketing prospect.

As previously mentioned, some police will shoot the laser gun via their windshield and even reflect it off of their rear-view mirror at oncoming cars. This actually will generate a speed readout, but these methods will probably decrease the device’s functionality and quite a few LIDAR gun companies usually do not endorse these methods.

The road to becoming a police man is harder than you think. When you were a child playing cops and robbers, you never realized it was going to be this difficult. Don’t let the challenge of becoming an officer scare you off from following your dreams.

One of the most important hurdles of becoming an officer is the police oral interview examination, and one of the biggest mistakes that new recruits make is not preparing for this interview. In fact, the police oral interview is the most important examination given to become part of the police force.

Why is it so important? There are several reasons for this. First, this is your chance to show the panel who you are. Second, this is your chance to show the panel how you think. You will not get that chance on the written exam or the physical exam. Also, this is your final opportunity to sell yourself to the panel. So, it is important to wow them with your answers.

One question that new recruits seem to do poorly on is “Why do you want to become a police officer?” This question can set the tone for you for the rest of your interview. Do not answer in a robotic way, and do not tell the board that you want to become a cop so you can carry a gun.

Take your time in answering, take a deep breath and tell the story of why you decided that being a police man was right for you. Be honest and clear in your answer. Don’t be afraid to tell the panel how excited you are to be standing in front of them, and about your lifelong dream and goal of becoming an officer. Being honest and telling your story will not only score points, but it will make you memorable to the panel, which will allow you to stand out from the crowd.

Did you know that you do not have to have a college degree to become a police officer? Most ads state that you need a degree in criminal justice to be a part of the force, but this is just not true. And, even if you do go out and spend the money for a college degree, that will not guarantee you a spot on the force.

There are two things you must do in order to become a police officer, whether you have a degree or not. You must have top marks on the police written exam and you must do extremely well for the police oral board interview. The fact is if you do poorly on either, you will not only get disqualified, that degree you have will not mean any more than the piece of paper it is written on!

In order to be a police man you need to have good moral character, common sense and a good driving record. You must be at least twenty one years old and have no felony convictions. Not everyone is cut out to be a police man, but if you want to be one and possess the qualities above, you can certainly make it as a recruit, with or without a college degree. It doesn’t matter how smart you are, or whether you have a degree or not. What matters is how you handle yourself in stressful situations, and some people handle themselves well, whether they have a degree or not.

The history of the police scanner goes clear back to the early 1930’s. The police would broadcast through a local AM radio Station. Anyone with a radio could hear the calls. A conventional radio system is basically full of frequencies. Frequencies are the channels of communication.

To hear transmissions you must program certain channels into the scanner. The first type of police scanners were crystal controlled with about four channels. To listen you would have to have a quartz-crystal tuned to that frequency and plugged into an internal slot. Each of those crystals would cost around $7.00 and eventually become very expensive to upkeep.

Then in the late 1970’s scanners that were programmable were invented. It had a keypad that you would enter frequencies with and the memory of the scanner would save all your frequencies. Then the trunked radio system came out and it allowed you to keep track of five to thirty channels or frequencies. A site controller is where users were automatically assigned frequencies. Like the emergency departments would have one frequencies or truckers would have another frequency. These types are harder to monitor because you are often switching channels even in between conversations.

Today, you have digital trunking scanners. It is a computer that encodes a voice transmission into streams of data and then the receiver will decode it so that an audible voice can be heard. They were first introduced in 2002 by Uniden and then in 2003, Radio Shack released their digital scanner. These are great to use because you can say things over the radio and it not be heard, but only by those who can decode it, which would be a few people. The only people who could decode the codes is those who are programmed for the channel.

Police scanners are nice to have because they are something different from TV and radio. You can sit in your backyard and understand why the police are going up the road and you know that it would be something to become alarmed over or something not to frit over. Police scanners are purchased because a person belongs to one of the emergency departments or just for the interest in the community.

Many times, there are announcements on a police scanner that will first be aired before any TV stations get a hold of the information. For example, you will be notified first from a police scanner about any tornados that touchdown or if the weather gets too sever before the news airs the information. This type of information is announced from the National Weather Service and is completely trust worthy. Police scanners can also be entertaining as much as informational because of all the silly things people will say over the air.

Early America’s roots in governmental institutions, ironically stem from Great Britain. This encluded law enforcement. England’s law enforcement can be traced to before 1066; the year of the Normandy invasion of Britain.

When many early Europeans first arrived to our shores, they were surprised at the lack of organized law enforcement. It was more or less, “the stronger were policed themselves and their communities”.

After “things” got fairly well settled the job of maintaining order in the new colonies was given to Justices of the Peace, and one might see “culprits” in pillories or stocks, paying their debt to society. But, as colonies changed into towns and towns into cities, the Justice of the Peace system was not enough. It became time for an organized, and for salaried policemen (there were no policewomen at the time).

In the early 1600’s, Boston launched Night Watch, which idea worked reasonably well as long as the area remained a rural and agrarian one. New York City established the Shout and Rattle Watch in 1651, but, by 1705 Philadelphia found it necessary to divide the city into ten patrol areas. This was really the first stab in America at “organized law enforcement” (for what it was worth).

Sometime between the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, the more than rapid growth of population and industrialization in America mandated the development of municipal police departments. In 1833, Philadelphia organized an independent, 24/7 police squad. . In 1844, NYC maintained two police forces; one unit working day, and one graveyard shift. During this period, police departments were headed by police chiefs, appointed and accountable to political bosses eerily similar to what was seen in the black and white police movies of the 1940’s and 1950’s. Corruption ran rampant.

Some of the law enforcement we inherited from England was “The Sheriff System”. (Remember the infamous Sheriff of Nottingham from Robin Hood?) As America moved west, in most frontier towns the sheriff was the chief law enforcement official. He could be recruited from the local community, or more often a Sheriff was selected by his reputation, and the more dismal the rep, the more likely he was to be elected. The Sheriff System exists in America today, but, on a more formal and politicized basis.

21st Century law enforcement agencies and departments are highly specialized organizations, with ongoing training to prepare to meet a great variety of problems and situations. We have federal, state, county, and municipal police. We no longer live in our parent’s world. There are dangers we face daily they couldn’t have imagined. There is a fine line between real life and the Internet. We remain dependent on peace officers from every organization for our” life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and to enforce the vision of our founding fathers when they penned that brilliant document, the U.S. Constitution.

The death of George Floyd and the subsequent trial of the police officer who a jury later decided is responsible for Floyd’s death does not address what police culture which really is at the heart of this issue. The officer who appeared in court was like a lamb led to slaughter. He was the scapegoat.

One just wonders how many times the officer held down others in the same way as Floyd was held.

As for the trial, the officer was charged with second and third degree murder and manslaughter.

I can understand the manslaughter charge because there was nothing intentional about Floyd’s death; but why charge him with murder. The officer may be responsible for Floyd’s death but that does not necessarily mean it was murder if it was not intentional.

It seems to me that the officer concerned has been made the scapegoat for everything that is wrong with police culture in certain areas of the US. It is easier to make individual officers pay the price for their mistakes rather than the police organisation. People make mistakes and sometimes these mistakes cause the death of another person.

Law enforcement officers put their lives on the line every year as they have to deal with some real ratbags and on top of that run the risk of ending up in prison if they make a mistake. Young men and women who are contemplating a career in law enforcement may want to think twice before entering this profession.

In the trial of Derek Chauvin the defence tried to put forth the argument that Floyd’s death was caused by something other than the force applied to the victim’s neck while the officer was holding him down. I would have thought that argument was irrelevant since the officer had no intention to kill Floyd in the first place.

It is more of a case of death by misadventure rather than murder?

There was another case in Minnesota where a law enforcement officer accidentally shot a young man. She went to grab her taser and pulled out her gun by mistake. The result of this mistake was that the young man died. In that case, the officer was charged as well.

It was a simple mistake. just like a deer hunter who accidentally shoots and kills another deer hunter. It happens every year in New Zealand. As with the police officers in Minnesota, each case is treated on its merits with charges laid accordingly, but a deer hunter who accidentally kills another is certainly not charged with murder.

What I am trying to say is that the bar for charging someone with murder in America seems to be quite low.

In Florida around 2010 or 2011, nineteen-year-old Jennifer Mee agreed to go on a date with a young man she had contacted on Facebook with the intention of robbing him. Her two male friends attempted to rob him and it was during this process the victim was fatally shot. Under Florida law all participants in a fatal robbery are equally guilty of murder whether the were directly involved in the fatality or not.

Jennifer was advised to defend the charges but was unsuccessful and she was found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. How does one justify such a severe sentence when there are so many cruel murders committed that received the same sentence; in some cases a lighter sentence.

Is this justice?

When people talk about justice for the victim what they really mean is to take revenge on behalf of the victim. Revenge or retribution as it is sometimes called is just another form of hate which at the end of does not achieve anything.

I confess. I suffered from a rare condition known as the uniform fetishism. My uniform fetishism was sexual in nature. Uniform fetishism is a sexual fetishism where an individual is sexually aroused by uniforms. Yes, you read that right, a uniform can aid in sexual matters. Well, it did for me. But, that doesn’t make me a jerk. All I am advocating for is that all human beings in their diversities must be allowed to explore our rights of desire to the extent necessary without impediments.

It should be noted that the academic literature on uniforms as a fetish is sparse. Generally, the most common uniforms in uniform fetish category include those of a police officer, prison warder, soldier, schoolgirl, and nurse.

Sociologists describe uniform fetishism as someone who derives sexual pleasure from viewing others dressed in the typical uniform. In my case, my irrational obsession was with the South African Police Service (SAPS) uniform worn by women. And, for me it was also directly linked to the presence of a firearm.

Dr. Dinesh Bhugra and Dr. Padmal De Silva are one of a few researchers who have studied this phenomenon. Their 1996 paper looked at the function of uniforms, and their relationship with sexual fantasy and sexual fetishism. They noted that uniforms can be seen as ‘outer skins’ that can be material and attractive in sexual terms, and that can enable individuals to display and wield power. Bhugra and Da Silva described the functions of uniforms as comprising the ‘five F’s’ (formal, fashion, fun, fantasy and fetish).

For me, I have something uniquely perplexing about the women in blue. I have had a desire to sleep with an armed woman dressed in the South African police uniform. I know it’s wacky but hear me out. My desire does not make me a masochist. I don’t have sexual deviant behaviour, hence I don’t associate the police uniform with punishment or torture as part of sexual pleasure.

My fetishism with the women in blue has a long standing condition. I became acutely aware of it in the early 90s. The more women joined the police service, it simply worsened my condition. Somehow, I felt like a sexual deviant, but I realised I am not. In any event many forms of sociologically deviant behaviour are not sanctioned by law, so I am not a sexual criminal either.

My sexual uniform fetishism reached its crescendo in 1999 when I finally dated a cop. Yes, I was once in love with a woman to the extent that she was in a police uniform and brandished a gun. I must admit. She wasn’t my kind of girl. She was short, a little chubby and fair in complexion. As readers of this column know, I prefer my women tall, slender and yellow boned.

For this particular woman, I am certain that I was not sexually attracted to her beyond her in a police uniform. Let’s put it this way, I was sexually attracted to her to the extent that she was a cop who wore a uniform and carried a gun. Our love “affair” if you can call it that was short-lived. We had fun while it lasted. I had to cut it short because my uniform fetishism was wearing thin. She was an emotional being in need of emotional excitement beyond her profession. I couldn’t be there for her emotionally. I was not into her.

In fact, I was into her to the extent that she was only allowed to come and see me during working hours, and, wait for it – she had to be in full police uniform and have her gun in the holster. As part of our play, my job was to disarm and undress her so that I could have my way with her. Clearly, this was not sustainable at least for her. For me, it felt like having your own cake and eating it too. I had the time of my life. I never disclosed my uniform fetishism condition to her. She genuinely believed I was romantically attracted to her. Poor thing!

Our relationship ended abruptly. She had in her mind fallen in love with me. However, for her to be certain, I had to pass an emotional test. She had manna from the heavens when in one of our sexual encounters there was an incident where the condom went kaput. Obviously, after the fact we had to get an emergency contraceptive pill which allowed us to play, “couple”. Weeks later she told me she was pregnant. She also demanded that we both go for HIV/Aids testing. However, every time we had an appointment to do the test, she didn’t pitch. Any meeting with her had become cumbersome as she threatened to shoot herself if she discovered that I had infected her with HIV/Aids.

A month later, in a bizarre confession, she admitted that she had just been playing games with my mind. She was neither HIV/Aids positive, nor pregnant or suicidal. “I just wanted to see if you love me,” she said. For me during this period I was in a panic because I feared that I might have contracted the sexual transmitted diseases especially HIV/Aids. While, I was relieved that she wasn’t pregnant, I couldn’t forgive her for putting me through the emotional roller coaster ride just to see if I loved her enough. The fact is I was not in love with her, but in love with her police uniform. After this episode, my condition was somehow cured. I now look at police women as women not just objects of desire.

Whenever you sit down in front of the police interview panel, you’ll get lots of unpredictable questions thrown your way. Some of the questions can be predicted, and some can’t especially the scenario base questions (also known as the “what if” questions meaning “what if” this happens). The police interview hypothetical questions are extremely common during the oral board interview.

Hypothetical interview questions were initially designed to measure an applicant’s ability to adapt to varies situations while on under severe pressure. You see, many recruits sail through the scenario base questions, while others fail miserably.

Here’s a hypothetical question that you might be asked during the police oral board interview:

1) You are dispatched to a domestic dispute between a male and female. Upon arrival, you notice the female half to be standing in the front yard heavily wounded with blood flowing from her forehead. She mentioned to you that her husband is armed and is nearby somewhere. What is your first course of action after arriving at the scene.

Explanation:

The first thing you should do upon arriving at the scene when you’ve come in contact with an injured victim is to get her to an area of safety, and then call for MEDICS. Why? Because you don’t have a visual on the husband and he is armed. So you want to get you and her somewhere near your patrol car, and then contact MEDICS. All this can be done within seconds. Next you’ll want to get a hold of your shift supervisor.

This type of question is pretty common during the police oral board interview. The panel wants to see how well you handle scenes that are totally unpredictable. Here’s a rule of thumb: If you don’t know what to do- call your shift supervisor pronto.

Everybody likes to save money when they make a major purchase such as a used ATV or a powersports bike. This is especially true in this period of economic crisis.

There are many normal auction houses which allow potential motorcycle purchasers to make significant saving, yet arguably the safest way to buy a bike is to visit one of the popular police motorcycle auctions.

Over the last decade it has been increasingly common to find the police selling off all sorts of goods, sometimes at rock bottom prices, purchasing a motorcycle from a police auction is possibly the best way to procure the bike you want at a bargain price.

Officers sell motorcycles for many reasons. Usually these bikes have been stolen and then recovered, or the motorcycles were just seized by the government. Although in this situation the bike will usually be purchased without a number plate or documentation, the new owner will need to re-register the bike.

Some police motorcycle auctions will have already taken care of the paperwork, meaning the bike is ready to put back on the road. Often officers will have exotic items like all terrain vehicles, which they have been seized and confiscated from a criminal or criminal group, and are unable to track down the original owner.

In this case the government will keep the item for a set period of time, to allow the original owner to come forward and claim it, after a certain time the bike will be put up for sale.

Lastly, the police motorcycle auctions will occasionally sell off used equipment, including bikes, these will have all of the branding and special equipment removed before they are put up for auction. These can be exceptionally good purchases if you are lucky enough to find one.

As mentioned in the previous section, purchasing and ex-police bike from a can be an excellent way to procure an exceptional bike at a great price.

Officers have a policy of decommissioning vehicles within 3 years of purchase and during their lifecycle they are maintained impeccably. During the time that they are used by the government they are seldom driven aggressively, and when they are it is in the hands of a very experienced and highly trained rider.

Therefore, almost every bike will be in superb mechanical condition when it comes up for auction. We also need to consider the fact that some local forces order their motorcycles with factory modifications already installed.

These come in the form of increased engine performance, better braking systems, improved suspension and suchlike, finding one of these bikes at auction is something of a gold mine, you can avail yourself of a factory modified bike at the fraction of the cost of purchasing one from the manufacturer.

Police motorcycle auctions are fairly safe when it comes to risks involved. That being said, it is still important that you check out any bike you intend to bid upon before the auction starts.

You will have no worry over the actual financial transaction involved in buying a bike from a police auction, although you will still need to make sure your choice of bike is suitable and in good order.