Well, as of Friday, I officially have my certification in law enforcement for the state of WI!! Scenarios went by so quickly! I rocked the crap out of my domestic. We had a person in crisis and I had a LOT of fun with that. The deadly force taught me a lot about distance between myself and my subject. We used FX for the deadly force and as I was being stabbed in the shoulder, I shot twice and hit him in the chest. That's the only time I'll get away with "shooting" a DCI agent, haha. Now I'm working on my final report for the academy and I'm putting in applications next week since I'm no longer moving to MN.

I took your advice about how to handle an individual who does NOT want to cooperate. In our domestic, the aggressor had found my partner's hot button and pushed it while calling her a nazi bitch cop. I wanted to talk to the woman when my partner had finish talking to her so I took over. The woman kept calling my partner a nazi cop and after talking to my partner, we decided to put her under arrest. As I told her to stand up, she argued and called my partner a Nazi bitch again. I was annoyed that my partner wasn't being more assertive and said something to the effect of "Alright, you need to stop calling my partner a Nazi cop. You've made it clear that you don't want us in your house and I get it, but here's the thing. We're trying to do our jobs, yeah you didn't call the cops, but someone was concerned enough to call us and we need to investigate this. Knowing that you don't want us here and that this isn't our house, we've both been trying to treat you with respect. The sooner you start cooperating with us, the sooner we can leave. If you continue to argue with us I'm going to be placing you under arrest for interferring with our investigation and for disorderly conduct. It's up to you."

Our evaluator was impressed with me I guess. He had nothing bad to say about me in our evaluation which made me pretty happy since it was the first domestic I went to where I wasn't questioning everything I had done.

No worries. Good to hear everything is progressing along just fine. That's what you want in the academy. Just get by and get certified. Then comes the hard part about finding a good place to call home.

We have a mandatory domestic arrest law if we have a verified traumatic injury which just means that if we see any visible injuries, we have to arrest. That includes bruises, cuts, scrapes, etc. as all mandatory factors. The prosecution is another story as the vics have a habit of changing their minds when they realize the scum that hit them is also the one bringing home the bacon.

The key to any interview or investigation is to remember what crime are you establishing and asking all the core questions to get the elements so you have the corpus delecti of the crime in your report. Memorize the key elements and your interview questions will follow. For example, on a criminal threat investigation where fear is an element, I ask for the subjective feeling of fear but I also note objective signs such as shaking or fidgeting or nervous behavior to back up the physiological signs establishing the feeling of fear.

Good luck on the last week and keep me updated on how the job search is going too!

Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner, had my final in firearms last week, passed, am now taser certified, had domestics last week, and building searches plus active shooter. This week we had our written final in Defense and Arrest and are finishing the physical stuff up tomorrow, testifying in court and Sexual Assault. I did my Sexual Assault scenario perfectly but totally blanked on my Domestic scenarios last night. I've never had a problem talking to people and I'm usually able to get info out of just about anyone, but last night, I just couldn't figure out what to ask. I can talk my way into a house when they don't want to let me in, I can calm them down and keep them calm, I just forget what the hell to ask, haha. I get the main questions but I kept forgetting the big one, "did this get physical?" We've got our final scenarios next week so if all goes well, I'll be certified as an LEO in the state of WI.

I shot an 11.41 in our el presidente with 50 points out of 60. I was the second most accurate (to a 59) and I think I was 3rd or 4th in the class. My holster is a Safariland 295 (I think).

Does your state not have a mandatory arrest for Domestics? And are they State vs. Blahblahblah or are they considered to be Civil there?

On a contact with a belligerent suspect who is yelling and uncooperative in a verbal manner... you tell her to calm down and let you do your job and she can be on her way when you are done. If she continues to yell and be uncooperative, you will have no choice but to secure her from interfering with your investigation. She can sit down on the curb and be quiet while you do your job or she can be in the backseat of the squad car if she cannot control her own outbursts. If she is uncooperative on a traffic stop, she is interfering with your investigation and it might rise to obstruction and if you do have something to cite her for, she can be arrested for not cooperating and you would have to take her in custody until she can brought in front of a magistrate. It's quite fluid though and you have to see how the situation resolves itself. As you get more used to contacts and how to deal with people, it gets easier.

Which Safariland holster do you have? I used the 6285 and now I use the 6004 drop-leg tactical holster. Both are level II and quite fast on the draw. Sounds like you are a natural shooter. Lots of girls I know are good, natural shooters. They don't have the preconceived notion of machismo like most men.

The 40SW is a good cartridge. It is categorized as a "major" caliber in IPSC by power factor so yeah, you would be taking some people down if you get them just right at even 25 yards (75 feet).

No idea about Brown. The DA is wrangling with having a hostile victim or even no victim if she is set against testifying and withdraws her charges. Oh well, here's to her plastic surgeon who will be putting her face back together in the future.

We run over the radio. I guess part of it too was I wasn't really expecting her to do it which caught me off guard. That's a pisspoor excuse, I know. So what would I tell a suspect like that? Stop yelling get back in the car or I'm putting you in the back of my squad for safety?

I actually had kind of a good day today. I've got that safariland Level II holster, which is actually the slowest holster in my class. We were doing top shooter at the end where we had 3 targets and we had to unholster, deliver 2 to each target, reload, deliver 2 to each target again and reload. I can do that in under 11 seconds. I'm the second fastest in our group. My shots were good, and the majority of them landed in center mass (5 points), but there were 2 misses and 3 or 4 that were in low point areas (arms and hip).

We also learned to shoot prone today. I did ok in that but I did manage to shoot my target down. Apparently a .40 bullet being shot from 45-50 feet away still has enough umph to drop the target if you hit the target holder.

When is brown set to go deal with all of this?

I think felony stops are pretty standard for all agencies except LAPD which has a swarm technique instead. I was talking about a regular T-stop where the driver gets out of the car before you can even start the approach. In that case, they do not get to go back in the car, but they get to sit on the curb until I am satisfied that they are not hiding anything in the car.

Never let the suspect dictate the tone and tempo of the encounter. If she yells, give her 1 chance to stop while you continue your investigation. If she insists on yelling, she gets to sit in the back of the unit until you are done. Are you guys simulating MDTs or you run over the radio?

I think Brown's people will pull any and all political angles to get him off, to include getting the corrupt local politicians like Nate Holden and Bernie Parks involved. I hope the DA has the cajones to carry it through and not cave in to political pressure.

We get them out with a felony stop by the squad mic and we have guns trained on the suspect.

The woman who got out was just a regular vehicle contact volunteer. I stopped her for speeding and after talking with her for a bit at the car, I went back to run her DL. As soon as I got back in the car, she got out of hers and I got out of my squad and she started yelling.

You actually think Brown's attorney can/will get him out of it??

Oh... in my experience, people that jump out of their cars usually have a reason, such as not wanting you to see something in the car like weapons or drugs so I am going to isolate them outside the car and have my partner secure them as I do some plain view and not so plain view searches. Call a K-9 if you have to, 95% of the time, your hunches will carry you through.

Hmmm... out here we're taught to not let them out of the car but if they are already out, we keep them out instead of letting them get back in the car and out of sight and possibly able to retrieve a weapon. If they're out, we pat them down and secure their persons either by cuffs or we sit them down on the curb, cross-legged at the knee with hands on the knees.

In any event, do whatever they tell you in the academy and get past it and then relearn whatever works for you in the field.

Rihanna did get her hand bitten by that upstanding citizen, Mr. Brown. I can't wait until they throw him in the slammer and he gets his beatdown by Big Bubba who then will show him what it feels like to be the abused lover of a stronger man. Karma is a b1tch.

Congrats on the SFST. You'll do fine on the scenarios. Just take a second to think things through before doing them. Don't rush, that will get you killed. Take your time to look around and assess before committing.

Well, I passed SFST. I did pretty well except for some reason I told my partner to pivot on his front foot during the walk and turn. I spent about an hour or 2 before the test running over the instructions with a friend. I'm definitely not perfect, but I'll get better the more I do it and I know what I'm looking for so it's a start!

I've come to know I'm going to be busting my hump to get my badge and when I get it, I won't want to lose it because of a scumbag. That doesn't stop the nasty thoughts, but I can get some gratification getting him locked up if I do my job correctly.

Chris Brown bit Rihanna along with beat her didn't he?

I hope I won't mess my first felony stop up. We practiced but it was on each other, same with vehicle contacts. I've done that class twice (once in my Associates and once in recruit) and I'm fairly confident with those or I feel like I am anyway. I did fine with the scenarios, I actually had one of the more difficult drivers out of my group. She ended up getting out of her car after I told her 3 times to stay in. She ended up yelling at me for a bit before I finally decided she was done venting and threw in some control talk and informed her she was going back in her car and she was doing it immediately.