You now have to walk through a metal detector while security searches your bags – all to check out a book at the Broome County Public Library or conduct other business there.

The library has been the new, temporary home for some of the 26 Broome County departments that moved from the county office building on Hawley Street in Binghamton to about a dozen different area locations two weeks ago.

With the relocation comes the county’s security screening process, which aims to protect employees and visitors against threats, said James Dadamio, the county’s security director.

As I discussed in The OODA Loop: A simple concept for modern combat strategy, there are two ways to take the offense away from our opponent. One is to overtake him in the cycle by being faster, the second is by slowing him down.

Here are some common ways police officers can speed through the loop faster than their opponent.

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EMPOWERING MIND & BODY via AWARENESS, AVOIDANCE & EFFECTIVENESS

VIOLENCE PREVENTION & RESOLUTION FOR THE CONCERNED CITIZEN

Stay Alert! Stay Alive! Training will provide you with the understanding of how conflict unfolds and how we respond to it. You will learn to recognize and analyze the subtle and obvious signs of conflict, how not to ignore intuition and how to take the initiative necessary to stay safe.

You will learn through your natural abilities; observation skills how to decipher, prevent and/or react to violent encounters. Thus allowing you to make the right decisions using your voice, brain, and body to stay safe!!!

Whether in the home, the workplace, the street  or in any other environment you need to be aware and alert and have a strategy in place to prevent and resolve conflict and violence. this workshop will teach you how with methods and techniques you can apply when you walk out the door after attending this program.

This course covers the following:

Definition of Violence

• Home
• Workplace
• Street
• Any environment you may find yourself in

Are we able to predict acts of Violence?

• Definition of Conflict and violence
• Observation techniques
• The OODA Loop
• Situational Awareness
• Color Codes of Awareness
• Survival Mindset
• Collaborative efforts
• Utilizing Networks
• Practical use

The goal for this training is to provide information and skills that work in the real world. The use of interactive discussions and role playing to clearly define the techniques taught is part of the course.

The workshop will take place at American Firearms School in North Attleboro, MA on Saturday June 20th  2009. Class starts at 9AM.

The workshop will be presented by Fred Leland current Lieutenant with the Walpole Police Department, and Director and Principal Trainer of Law Enforcement and Security Consulting, Inc

Cost: This is a specialized training class, the cost is $65.00 dollars per person.

To register contact Fred@lesc.net or call 508-298-2023

See: Stay Alert…Stay Alive flyer bellow

When Richard Poplawski learned the fourth victim of a deadly encounter at his Stanton Heights home survived with a wound to his hand, he callously responded, “Oh, I thought I got that one, too,” investigators said Tuesday.

During interviews with police, Poplawski, 22, described how he fired extra bullets into the motionless bodies of Officers Stephen J. Mayhle and Paul J. Sciullo II “just to make sure they were dead,” detectives said.

A small improvised explosive device detonated outside an Upper East Side Starbucks early Monday morning, shattering the coffee shop’s windows and raising fears of terrorism.

The bomb tore a hole in a wooden bench outside the coffee chain’s outpost at Third Ave. and E. 92nd St. when it exploded at 3:30 a.m.

No one was injured in the blast, but it terrified residents who had been fast asleep early on Memorial Day. (NY Daily News)

For any contemporary warrior who is not already familiar with Boyd’s Cycle – the human decision making paradigm – I say to you, “Go and study.” First documented by Col. John Boyd (USAF Ret, now deceased), the Human Decision Making Cycle is comprised of the following four steps repeated in endless loops: Observe; Orient; Decide; Act. Anyone who has ever been in a fight knows that thinking faster than your opponent matters – and not just a little. Veteran combatants have given testimony as to the applicability and importance of Boyd’s Cycle. More specifically, they’ve talked about how important it is for every warrior to understand what an “OODA Loop” is and how moving through it faster than your opponent means you’ll be victorious. This week we take an in-depth look at the third (hidden) “O”: as in OH SH*T.

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These guys Matt and Scott from Spartan Cops are great at simplifying the process of what I like to call “imitative driven tactics” for when the talk is over and control must be the goal. Take a look!

Fred

There is a saying that where the head goes, the body will follow. This is especially true when trying to control a suspect on the ground. If you are able to pin the suspect’s head to the ground, then he will not be able to move very easily and it will be very difficult for him to effectively assault you.

Many defensive tactics systems teach officers to take a suspect to the ground, but few teach officers how to properly pin the suspect on the ground. It is much easier to do than you might think. If you use your shin and knee properly, you can pin the suspect’s neck and chin to the ground where it is very hard for him to move.

Suppose that you have taken the suspect down with a straight arm bar on his right arm and he lands on his stomach. If you place your right knee in the suspect’s upper back between his shoulder blades and your left knee on his lower back while his arm is trapped between your legs, the average suspect can struggle enough to get you off balance and escape. This technique is extremely safe for the suspect, because you are not placing any weight on his neck or head. Unfortunately, it is not very safe for you because he has a good chance of fighting free and assaulting you.

Instead, let us look at an improved version of this technique. You have taken the suspect down with a straight arm bar on his right arm with him landing on his stomach. This time you place (not dropping your weight, but actually placing) your right upper shin and knee across his neck at the base of his skull, coming in at a 45 degree angle between his shoulder and head. By applying steady pressure with your body weight, you can actually pin his head to the ground. If he is really large and/or strong, just leverage more weight on him by pulling on his right arm which you are still holding from performing the arm bar. This will significantly increase the downward pressure on the suspect and make you much heavier. Your left knee can then be placed on his lower back, allowing you to control how much weight you transfer to his neck.

This technique shifts the relative safety to the officer, instead of the suspect. When performed correctly, the suspect cannot turn his head so he cannot see what you are doing. Combined with loud repetitive commands for the suspect to stop resisting and place his hands behind his back, this technique is quite effective.

I have performed this technique on my training partners and had them perform it on me hundreds, if not thousands of times over the past 14 years and we have not sustained any injuries from it. This is primarily because we control our weight and do not drop onto each other’s neck. If you suddenly drop all your weight onto the suspect’s neck in a knee drop instead of performing a controlled placement of weight, there is a greater chance of serious injury. That action should only be done if you can justify a higher level of force.

Therefore, be careful not to perform a knee drop on the suspect’s neck, unless you can justify deadly force.

Watch the video here

SAN JOSE, Calif. — At 40,000 feet over the Pacific, the only thing vacationing San Jose police officers Luan Nguyen and Manny Vasquez wanted was to catch some Z’s, maybe see an action movie and finally hear the announcement: “Welcome to San Francisco International Airport.”

What they heard instead was the captain: “I have a situation on board. If there are any law enforcement officers on board, please identify yourselves to a flight attendant.”

Imagining pipe bombs, Vasquez nudged his drowsy sergeant. Nguyen had popped an Ambien and thought he was dreaming what he had just heard.

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This is the latest from the FBI on Crime Stats ending 2008…Experience and my gut tell me the first half of 2009 crime is up. No stats to back the statement but from what i am seeing on the street crime is on an upward trend.

Fred

WASHINGTON — According to the FBI’s Preliminary Annual Uniform Crime Report, the nation experienced a 2.5 percent decrease in the number of violent crimes and a 1.6 percent decline in the number of property crimes for 2008 compared with data from 2007. The report is based on information that the FBI gathered from 12,750 law enforcement agencies that submitted six to 12 comparable months of data to the FBI for both 2007 and 2008.

Violent Crime

• In 2008, all four of the violent crime offense categories declined nationwide compared with data from 2007. Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter declined 4.4 percent, aggravated assault was down 3.2 percent, forcible rape decreased 2.2 percent, and robbery decreased 1.1 percent.

• Violent crime declined in all city groups. Those cities with populations of 250,000 to 499,999 saw the greatest decline in violent crime (4.0 percent). Violent crime in nonmetropolitan counties decreased 3.3 percent and in metropolitan counties declined 2.5 percent.

• Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter dropped 9.1 percent in cities with 100,000 to 249,999 in population. However, in cities with populations less than 10,000, murder and nonnegligent manslaughter increased 5.5 percent.

• Cities with 250,000 to 499,999 inhabitants experienced the greatest decline in forcible rapes at 4.4 percent; cities under 10,000 in population showed the only rise in forcible rapes at 1.4 percent. Forcible rape offenses decreased 7.3 percent in nonmetropolitan counties, but increased 0.6 percent in metropolitan counties.

• Although robbery overall showed a decrease, cities with populations less than 25,000 showed increases in robbery. Robberies also increased in both metropolitan and nonmetropolitan counties, 0.7 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively.

• Aggravated assault decreased in all city groups. Cities with 250,000 to 499,999 inhabitants experienced the greatest decrease at 6.0 percent. Aggravated assaults declined in both metropolitan and nonmetropolitan counties, 3.9 percent and 3.4 percent, respectively.

• Violent crimes decreased in all four regions of the country in 2008. However, slight increases in murder were reported in the Northeast (0.7 percent) and in the Midwest (0.4 percent). The Northeast also showed increases of 2.5 percent for forcible rape and 0.3 percent in robbery.

Property Crime

• Nationwide, burglaries were the only property crime to show an increase (1.3 percent) in 2008 compared with 2007 data. Larceny-thefts were down 0.6 percent, and motor vehicle thefts declined 13.1 percent.

• Property crimes decreased in all city groupings. Cities with 250,000 to 499,999 inhabitants had the greatest decrease in property crimes with a decline of 5.1 percent. Property crimes decreased 0.9 percent in nonmetropolitan counties but increased 0.2 percent in metropolitan counties.

• Burglary offenses increased 3.3 percent in cities with 500,000 to 999,999 persons. Burglaries also increased in both metropolitan and nonmetropolitan counties, 2.1 percent and 1.0 percent, respectively.

• Larceny-theft increased 0.5 percent in the nation’s largest cities (one million and over in population) but decreased in all other city groups. In metropolitan counties, larceny-thefts rose 1.4 percent but in nonmetropolitan counties declined 1.2 percent.

• For motor vehicle theft, declines occurred in all population groupings. Cities with 250,000 to 499,999 inhabitants experienced the greatest decline at 16.8 percent.

• Three of the nation’s four regions had decreases in property crimes in 2008 when compared with data from 2007. The greatest decrease in 2008 was in the West, where property crimes were down 4.2 percent. In the Northeast, however, property crimes increased 1.6 percent.

Arson

• Arson offenses, tracked separately from other property crimes, decreased 3.9 percent nationwide. But law enforcement agencies in cities 250,000 to 499,999 in population recorded the only increase in arson (2.1 percent). Arson offenses declined in all four regions in 2008. The largest decrease (5.9 percent) was in the West.

The complete Preliminary Annual Uniform Crime Report is available exclusively at www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm.

Liberty County Sheriff’s officials are expected to meet with the FAA on Tuesday to discuss what a Continental Express pilot reported as a “missile or rocket” flying near his airplane.

A pilot reported to the Federal Aviation Administration that at about 8:15 p.m. Friday, an object passed within 150 feet beneath the aircraft, sheriff’s officials said. (Chron.com)