Law enforcement officers have an average life span of five years after retiring. When we consider that law enforcement officers can retire at a younger age than the general public, this statistic should be a wakeup call to all of us. Ask yourselves these three questions:

1. What are we doing to prepare our-selves for retirement?

2. What are we (as trainers and super-visors) doing to prepare our officers for retirement?

3. What are we doing to improve the quality of their lives while they are still working?

A large percentage of officers are also retiring to lives filled with back, shoulder, knee, neck, ankle, wrist and elbow pain and are oftentimes unable to physically do the things they always dreamed of doing in retirement. Many officers just accept this chronic pain and decreasing physical abilities as the rigors of the job and growing older. We endure them as a trade off for taking care of our families, our financial responsibilities and earning our pensions. The question we must ask ourselves is, What good is a great pension if we are unable to enjoy it?

By Jason Williamson 

When training budgets are on the chopping block of cities and towns nationwide, how can a police department lobby for little to no cuts? Well, that is probably easier said than done. To cut a training budget is, simply put, penny wise and pound foolish. Considering the number of 42 U.S.C. §1983 lawsuits ranging from litigious topics such as pursuits, use of force, handcuffing, firearms, less lethal, search and seizure, interviews/interrogations, dealing with mentally challenged people, civil matters, etc. However, the people usually tasked with approving budgets are not police officers, have little or no training as to what police officers do, and let's face it we all would like to assume that they don't like police officers. The task of winning over your elected civilians and/or City Administrator can be a daunting challenge during today's economic downturn, where the bottom line rules.