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<\/p>\nThis week marks the annual conference of the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association. If you can\u2019t be there, you can read the wisdom of many of ILEETA\u2019s master instructors. Brian Willis, an inspirational police trainer who spent a quarter century with the Calgary Police Department, has edited a superb collection titled \u201cIf I Knew Then: Life Lessons from Cops on the Street.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s 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\u2019 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\u2019s 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\u2019s essay on the practical jokes that helped him and his brother officers keep their emotional balance at work.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s much, much more \u2013 too much more to list in this short space. Suffice to say that the forty essays that comprise \u201cIf I Knew Then\u201d are a treasury of street-wise, people-savvy knowledge.\u00a0 Priceless to anyone considering a law enforcement career, it\u2019s also a compelling read for any responsible citizen who wants to better understand what it\u2019s REALLY like to do the law enforcement job.<\/p>\n