Once in a while,

[retdetsgt]

my old department does something really well. This is a great recruiting video, I think.

Behind the Badge - Portland Police Bureau - YouTube

[G35 Mass]

I saw that vid posted recently... I'm not sure where.

Great video.

[retdetsgt]

Might have been me, I have a good memory still, it's just short......

[Cat_Doc]

Ours is putting one together with flash bangs, door kicking, window raking, cuff and stuff, pursuits, dope loads, foot chases, rotor dust outs, and K9 sends with heavy metal background music.

We do have a Community Services Unit that hands out stickers and stuffed animals, enters cars and floats in parades and does a bang up job for the impoverished kids under the Sheriff's Santa program, Home Alone, Block Watch, etc., but I think that doesn't really interest the age group we are going for?

[Cat_Doc]

Not a recruitment video, but this news video is some of the stuff we're doing.

'Massive' smuggling ring dismantled in Arizona

[Aussie George]

my old department does something really well. This is a great recruiting video, I think.

Behind the Badge - Portland Police Bureau - YouTube

Nicely done.

Our union put this out in 2007 to show the public some of the crap we have to deal with.

[Aussie George]

Not a recruitment video, but this news video is some of the stuff we're doing.

'Massive' smuggling ring dismantled in Arizona

There were some very good results there. When they lifted back the plywood on the first truck I thought, "HOLEY DOOLEY"

[retdetsgt]

We do have a Community Services Unit that hands out stickers and stuffed animals, enters cars and floats in parades and does a bang up job for the impoverished kids under the Sheriff's Santa program, Home Alone, Block Watch, etc., but I think that doesn't really interest the age group we are going for?

We get a LOT of bad press here. They emptied the mental hospitals about 20 years ago and they are all over the city of Portland and the police are left to deal with them. They come out at night like zombies and very few of the citizens are aware they are even out there. Naturally, a lot of our encounters are violent and the press beats us over the head with it. Every two bit mental health "expert" is interviewed and condemns us as being neanderthals. That's what this what this video is trying to override.

The purpose of this isn't to show us as touchy-feely, but as regular people trying to do a job.

[Cat_Doc]

The purpose of this isn't to show us as touchy-feely, but as regular people trying to do a job.

Oh, I fully understand that, Jim.

It just so happens I was being shown the footage for a recruitment video by our PIO the other day and he was asking me which background music I thought was best to get the attention of the younger generation. I told him it all sounded like jumbled screaming to me and he needed to ask one of the youngsters.

It was quite evident the target audience they are going for at this time, place and specific battles we are facing in our sphere of operation. Kind of the same thing your agency is doing.

It reminded me of the military recruitment commercial I saw a few years ago showing some young teenage males boldly jumping from a cliff into water for the excitement then hitting them with the, "We've been waiting for you!" Next scene shows a rescue jumper leaping from a helicopter into the ocean.

Target audience.

[Cat_Doc]

There were some very good results there. When they lifted back the plywood on the first truck I thought, "HOLEY DOOLEY"

I'll probably get some rolling eyes in the background, George, but our guys working the western region are running across these large loads on a daily basis.

It is impressive to hear young deputies describing wild and dangerous pursuits, bail-outs with BG's carrying long guns running in multiple directions and the young men and woman doing the job are extremely calm on the radio.

They are giving physical descriptions, direction of travel and recommending containment perimeter locations as though giving directions to a lost motorist.

It is somewhat disturbing to realize the reason they are so calm and professional is that they are doing this so much they are conditioned to the activity that would cause the less experienced to scream into the radio.

Before I got promoted and moved to another quieter region, I was a patrol sergeant in the smuggling corridor. The older ROD's (Retired On Duty) were requesting transfers to other units and the young pit bulls were begging for transfers to the region. It tells you something when you have young law enforcement patrol troops who are carrying extra rifle magazines as part of their everyday uniform equipment.

I worry, a lot, for our deputies out there. It is only a matter of time before muzzle flashes are going to be routine if we don't protect our nation by sealing the border.

[retdetsgt]

Just prior to the Vietnam war, the Army was pushing the slogan, "Join the Army and learn a trade". They would send you to any school you requested as long as you qualified for it. That's how I originally got sent to electronics school.

But some great cartoons came out of that. One was a kid telling a recruiting Sgt., "I don't wanna learn a trade, I wanna kill guys!"

The other was a kid sitting on a recruiters desk with the caption, "If you'll just sign here, Mr. Jones..... YOU CAN GET THE HELL OFF MY DESK, PRIVATE!"

I called this a recruitment video, but in retrospect, it probably is more of a PR than anything. The last time we opened up applications, we had 350 in the first 7 minutes before it was closed. Applicants today aren't hard to get.

[Cat_Doc]

Off topic a little, Jim, but after starting the LPO training (based largely on West Point leadership courses) I think I finally understand what they were trying to do with the slogan of, "An Army of One."

General Schwarzkopf was giving a speech to West Point Cadets after the kick-*** we gave Iraq in Desert Storm.

This is not an exact quote, but in essence he said, "I've seen good leaders who stood in front of a platoon and saw 44 soldiers. I've seen great leaders who stood in front of a platoon and saw 44 individuals." He was not suggesting the soldiers shouldn't work as a unified team. He was hammering the importance that a great leader realizes, recognizes and strives to help develop individual traits, motivations, character, etc., of our young troops to be the future leaders.

Great leaders doing their duty to prepare the young ones to fill the leadership void when the old dogs moved out of the way.

An Army of One?

[retdetsgt]

That was one great asset the draft had that no one talks about. My platoon had a variety of people from different areas of society. I had everything from college grads who just wanted to do their two years and get out to kids who hadn't finished high school. I think it made for a much healthier military. I know it exposed me to types of people I'd never been around before. One of my best friends when I was enlisted was a black kid from Harlem... Who would have expected a white kid from the Texas cotton fields and someone like him to hit it off. It gave me a whole new perspective on race, etc. that I never had before and may have never picked up on.

And from what I've been told from guys in other branches, a lot of people enlisted in them to avoid having to go into the Army and probably infantry so they also benefited from the diversity.

[Samuel]

[Cat_Doc]

Here is the actual quote I referred to.

"When you lead in a battle you are leading people, human beings. I have seen competent leaders who stood in front of a platoon and all they saw was a platoon. But great leaders stand in front of a platoon and see it as 44 individuals, each of whom has aspirations, each of whom wants to live, each of whom wants to do good." ~~ General Norman Schwarzkopf