Police Tips

The PoliceOne Law Enforcement and Police Tips section provides insight from PoliceOne columnists and members on the things Police Officers can do to increase safety and enhance productivity.

The tips and resources here—ranging from innovations in defensive tactics to new concealment techniques to off duty survival and dozens of other matters critical to law enforcement officers—are updated regularly. Every day, Officers on the streets encounter new information that can help fellow officers, so we encourage you to submit your tips. Help us to help Police Officers better serve and protect our communities.

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Full list of recent and archived Police Tips

Moving to fight a close-quarter ambush: In this video tactical tip, Don Gulla — alongside his presentation partner, Rob — shows a technique to get quickly out of the line of fire of a sudden ambush attack sprung from ...
Waiting for backup? So is the guy you just stopped... 10: With cell phones you can bet that by the time you’re running the driver, he or she is texting friends announcing the stop. That means help may be on the way for your suspect, whether ...
Easing duty-belt discomfort 27: During the last 20 years, I’ve tried every trick in the book to relieve the discomfort caused by the duty belt on my hips. I’ve tried load-bearing harnesses and suspenders. ...
Video: Using your personal body weapons 7: Alongside his presentation partner, PoliceOne Editor-in-Chief Doug Wyllie, Dan Marcou discusses and demonstrates some of the personal body weapons available to you — including ...
Turning the tables (and opening heart and minds)9: Years ago, when I first began working as an adjunct instructor at a DPS Academy, I used to get up at zero dark thirty to join the recruits on their physical training run before instructing ...
40 times stronger than heroin: Watch out for this new drug11: Please be advised that there’s a new illegally-produced synthetic drug floating around out there that can cause serious harm if you come into contact with it. The drug is called ...
Video: Dry-fire trigger-pull drill: In this video tactical tip, Betsy Brantner Smith works with demonstration partner J.C. Corbett — a Senior Instructor at the Sig Sauer Academy — a simple drill that you can do to ...
Verbal tactic that calms adrenalin frenzies 8: It’s a simple exclamation, yelled as loud as you can: “ONE VOICE!” But it can have an immediate positive effect at a chaotic scene, according to trainer Gary Klugiewicz, ...
Watch for DOC, a strong, unscheduled drug 7: After a recent encounter with the powerful psychedelic drug 2,5-Dimethoxy-4-chloroamphetamine (also known as DOC), I felt the need to get the drugs information out to law enforcement ...
Behaviors that indicate a concealed cuff key 2: The other day I was having a conversation with a law enforcement buddy of mine — the subject was the perpetual evolution of handcuff keys carried by bad guys. Every few weeks a ...
Video: Going from straight armbar to figure-four takedown 12: In this video tactical tip, Diana Rathborne of the Minnesota Kali Group — alongside demonstration partner Pete Hetrick, who is also an instructor with MKG — shows us a drill for ...
Do you know what 'they' know? 5: When the news broke about the dual bombing at the Boston Marathon, it was “day one” of ILEETA and I was standing in the lobby of the Westin, speaking with a couple of police ...
Keeping your rifle sling out of the way for rapid deployment 11: This is probably common sense for most, but in a long list of lessons learned the hard way, I discovered another issue while deploying my rifle rapidly from my patrol rack. I have been ...
Video: Thai boxing drill for law enforcement 5: In this video tactical tip, Diana Rathborne of the Minnesota Kali Group — alongside demonstration partner Pete Hetrick, who is also an instructor with MKG — shows us a Muay Thai ...
Video: Filipino foot movement drills 6: In this video tactical tip, Diana Rathborne of the Minnesota Kali Group — alongside demonstration partner Pete Hetrick, who is also an instructor with MKG — shares a series of ...
Are you 'bingo' ready?7: Recently I was speaking with Aaron Tomlinson, a police trainer at Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton, Wisconsin. He gave me permission to share with you an analogy he uses to prepare ...
It’s 'OK to be Ok' when you have to take a life 51: The officer who approached international trainer Brian Willis at a speaking engagement recently is not unique, unfortunately. He’d shot and killed a suspect who was trying to kill ...
Video: Reinforcing sound hand-to-hand fundamentals9: In this video tactical tip, Diana Rathborne of the Minnesota Kali Group — alongside demonstration partner Pete Hetrick, who is also an instructor with MKG — shows us a wide ...
A golden lesson in a rough-cut diamond4: What can a 37-year-old journeyman baseball player teach law enforcers about “routine” events? Yesterday, in the middle innings of an otherwise-meaningless spring training game, ...
Watch for keyless-ignition systems on stops 12: Just thought I’d pass on something I learned the hard way. I performed a vehicle stop on a theft suspect and I asked him to throw the keys up on the roof. I was baffled for a bit why ...