The week before last, I attended and taught at the annual conference of ILEETA, the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association. Despite the economy, the event drew some 725 police trainers from around the country and several other nations, even though a huge number had to subsidize their attendance out of their own pockets.

It is a horrible year for police line of duty deaths.  This past weekend alone, at least three cops in different parts of the US were murdered in the line of duty. Much of the emphasis of this year’s training was on Officer Safety and Survival.

The general consensus of police, military, and national intelligence is that it’s only a matter of time before this nation experiences an incident reminiscent of Beslan or Mumbai: armed, trained, committed terrorists massacring the innocent with automatic weapons and explosives. My old friend Jeff Chudwin, Chief of Police in Olympia Fields, Illinois and one of the nation’s leading authorities on such things, gave a compelling presentation on the topic.

At a time when we need more, better-trained and -equipped cops than ever, we’re seeing police layoffs, hiring freezes, and budget cuts.  Many of the presenters addressed how to deliver quality training with less money for equipment, ammunition, and pay for officers attending.

For the private citizen, what all this is saying is to be prepared for disaster. Remember Hurricane Katrina, just six short years ago.  In a nation where there are only about 800,000 cops to serve an estimated 320,000,000 citizens, it’s absolutely true that when seconds count, the police are only minutes away.

On a personal note, I shot the annual ILEETA Cup pistol match, sponsored by Meggitt, providers of excellent high-tech training simulators. We had close to fifty seasoned instructors and master shooters in the running, including Chris Cerino, finalist on last year’s “Top Shot” TV show. It was a challenging Meggitt course that represented targets as far away as about fifty yards, some of them moving, on the computer-run event.  I had the good fortune to win it, proving the old adage that even a blind squirrel finds an occasional acorn. With only time to shoot four matches in the first four months of this year, I was grateful for the outcome…but more grateful for the chance to recharge my batteries with the spirit of commitment my 725 brothers and sisters brought to the ILEETA conference.

Jeff Chudwin warns that it’s only a matter of time before Beslan and Mumbai scenarios are acted out in the USA by enemies of our country.

Ron Borsch’s research shows that mass murders in the US are generally ended by private citizens (sometimes armed, often not) or by single, first responding police officers.

2011 ILEETA Cup pistol shooting award. From left, Jimmy McCoy of Meggit LE Training Section, Jimmy Smith of ILEETA, Mas, and ILEETA executive director Harvey Hedden.

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The extension of the right to carry a loaded and concealed handgun in public to students on college campuses has become a hot button issue on both sides of the “gun rights debate.” Our side, of course, points out that armed citizens – like the adult students who drew their licensed concealed handguns and successfully prevented a mass murder at the Appalachian Law School – can prevent horrors like the massacre of helpless students and teachers perpetrated by the psycho at Virginia Tech just a few years ago at about this time of year.

Opponents, of course, cry that students are too young and immature to be trusted with deadly force. Funny…our country has trusted college-age Americans to go forth with powerful weapons and defend our nation since the time of the Revolution.

We’re talking, basically, about people 21 or older who have been vetted by law enforcement entities and issued carry permits.  My last year in college I was 21, and almost daily carried a handgun concealed, usually a Colt .45 auto if I was wearing a jacket, or a snub-nosed Smith & Wesson .38 Special revolver under an un-tucked shirt. Neither law nor college policy forbade it; I never needed it there; no one ever noticed it; and all was well.

Here’s a thoughtful piece that shows two sides from the Op-Ed pages of the New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/15/opinion/15winkler.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=print

What’s your take on the issue, and your experience with it?

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More is coming out about the murder of Sgt. Tim Chapin in Chattanooga, which was discussed here a few days ago.

We now learn that the killer, wounded by police gunfire, was captured by an armed citizen. Harlan Murray was involved in a yard sale nearby when he heard the gunfire, and ushered the good people safely into the house, where he accessed a .22 caliber revolver.

Moments later, Murray confronted the suspect, and ordered him to the ground at gunpoint. Debilitated by police bullets, the murderer reluctantly complied. Chattanooga cops quickly rushed to the scene and took over.

Kudos to Brother Murray, more living proof of why I’ve always felt the law-abiding armed citizen and the police are natural allies.

I’ve already suggested to a friend on CPD that the cops chip in to buy Mr. Murray a larger caliber handgun.

Link to the story is here.

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This week marks the annual conference of the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association. If you can’t be there, you can read the wisdom of many of ILEETA’s master instructors. Brian Willis, an inspirational police trainer who spent a quarter century with the Calgary Police Department, has edited a superb collection titled “If I Knew Then: Life Lessons from Cops on the Street.”

Roll on the floor with Corporal Paul Fuhr of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as the drunk he has arrested sinks his thumbs into the officer’s orbital sockets and does his damndest to gouge his eyes out. Grieve with Chris Butler, who served in Calgary as long as Brian, as he investigates death after untimely death, and learns to cope with the ugliest things law enforcement brings its personnel face to face with.

Brian did not neglect US cops in his collection. Ride with veteran Illinois street cop Bob Willis through a collision in which his patrol car is doing 70 MPH and oncoming vehicle, 50. Feel what it’s like to suffer an impact that leaves you with 39 bone fractures and bends your holstered Smith & Wesson into a banana shape. Share DEA Agent Chuck Soltys’ revelation that the quiet, unassuming peace officers are often the ones who display the most conspicuous heroism when the crap hits the fan. Share Dale Stockton’s satisfying memory of the relief in the voice of the terrified stalking victim when the Carlsbad, CA police captain tells her that her stalker has been captured. Battle in the snow with a violent criminal impervious to pain, alongside Geoffrey Anderson, who did 25 years with the Newington, Connecticut PD. And, to better understand the gallows humor that is a safety valve for all who work in helping professions and are exposed to unrelieved grimness in their occupation, read my old friend Ron Borsch’s essay on the practical jokes that helped him and his brother officers keep their emotional balance at work.

There’s much, much more – too much more to list in this short space. Suffice to say that the forty essays that comprise “If I Knew Then” are a treasury of street-wise, people-savvy knowledge.  Priceless to anyone considering a law enforcement career, it’s also a compelling read for any responsible citizen who wants to better understand what it’s REALLY like to do the law enforcement job.

“If I Knew Then” can be ordered from the publisher’s website at www.warriorspiritbooks.com.

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Last evening in Chattanooga, I paid my respects at the wake of Sgt. Tim Chapin. He was murdered a few days ago in a running gun battle with a heavily armed robber. The same punk wounded another Chattanooga cop, Officer Lorin Johnston, before a hail of police gunfire took the perp apart. The cop-killer was wearing a ballistic vest, and that and excellent trauma care saved his worthless life to stand trial and face a well-deserved lethal injection.

The killer is said to be a white supremacist with a long history of violent crime, released not long ago to a halfway house from which he walked away to begin the one-man crime wave that ended so tragically in Chattanooga.

Driving through the city to Abba’s House, a huge and immaculate contemporary church where the funeral will take place today, it seemed that every business marquee in the city expressed its condolences to the slain policeman’s family and colleagues.  The line of those coming to pay homage to the martyred cop and his family seemed endless. I stood in that line for a little over an hour and a half. I didn’t complain, I took emotional nourishment from it. While many of those good people were cops, many were ordinary citizens.

It is good to see when a cop is murdered in the line of duty, when a firefighter is burned to death rescuing a child from a flaming building, when a paramedic is crushed to death trying to extricate an accident victim, that the members of the community they serve turn out to show their appreciation of their sacrifice.

Officer Johnston, the cop who was wounded, gave one of his kidneys to a brother officer four years ago and saved that man’s life.  Sergeant Chapin had risked his life for the citizens of Chattanooga for 26 years before that life was torn from him in the line of duty last weekend. It is good to see a community that respects and appreciates that.

Butch Rogers of ATF may have said it best in a consolation letter to Deputy Chief Mike Williams. “…I have always believed you can never kill a Cop,” said Rogers, “Because you can’t kill his spirit – the spirit of the mission.  That lives on.”

An educational trust fund has been started for Sgt. Chapin’s children. Below is the information on it if interested.

Checks made Payable to:

Ricky D Mincy TTEE U/W Educational Fund for Tim Chapin Family

Mailed to:

RDP Partners

6111 Shallowford Road, Suite 103, Chattanooga, TN 37421

Memo line: Acct # 6219-9354

Sgt. Tim Chapin. RIP.

The cop-killer. Pay attention to the tattoos.

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