A Season of Giving
Today is Giving Tuesday and in this season of giving, I would ask that you consider supporting some of the many organizations that support law enforcement. Here are some I recommend:
Concerns of Police Survivors (C.O.P.S.)
Each year, between 140 and 160 officers die in the line of duty and their families and co-workers are left to cope. C.O.P.S. provides… Continue reading
For those of you who loved the Armor Your Self book, but wanted to share that information with your peers, the Law Enforcement Survival Institute has just released several different Study & Discussion Guide Packages designed to assist individuals, small study groups and law enforcement book clubs.
The two study packages, built around the book Armor Your Self: How to Survive a Career in Law Enforcement, include either 5 or 10 copies of the Armor Your Self: How to Survive a Career in Law Enforcement resilience building textbooks. These collections are a Do-It-Yourself package for book clubs, small groups or academy classes that can’t afford more expensive training, but want to explore the Armor Your Self textbook more deeply. These two packages include… Continue reading
I recently signed up for an online, zoom-style writing course.
I am attempting to learn more about how to write with purpose and structure.
This past session, which was an hour long, focused on letting go of an outcome or agenda. I did not really understand what that meant in its entirety when applying it to writing.
As students, we heard the topic from the moderator and then began writing, without stopping, for 10 minutes. The goal is to listen to our minds, keep the pen moving and not focusing on perfection. We were instructed to focus only on what our mind was saying. Then, she reads a second topic, and we repeat the process. Just keep moving the pen and listen.
So, that is what I did or so I thought.
After the first ten minutes, we took a minute or two to finish our thoughts and get ready for the second topic.
This time, the moderator repeated the first topic, word for word, and then said, “Go.”
I sat there for at LEAST 2 minutes. Did she forget she already read this topic? Do I type her error in the chat to let her know? There are over three hundred people on this Zoom, didn’t anyone else catch that? What the heck is going on?
And then…the AHA moment.
I already had it in my head, we were doing this session the same way we had done it before.
I was attached to the outcome.
I expected a second topic.
The moderator ignored the chat comments (from all the participants) and continued forward. After the second ten-minute writing session, the moderator told us she repeated the first topic on purpose.
She gave us a live experience of what it is like to be attached to an outcome. Man, That. Was. Good!
Looking back, I recalled several ways I had been “attached!” I thought for sure I would be married at least five years before I had a child. I was pregnant within six months of my wedding. I thought for sure I would work in the medical field my entire life. I changed careers at age 34 to law enforcement. I thought for sure I would work in law enforcement for at least 20 years. I retired after 13.5 years.
The change and flow of my life… Continue reading
Mordecai DzikanskyI received very sad news today that my friend, retired NYPD Detective First Grade, Mordecai Dzikansky has died suddenly of a heart attack. Morty was my friend, my colleague, my hero and a damn good cop.
Morty served in the NYPD for twenty-five years and he was a Hero, an NYPD Detective First Grade, a Husband, a Father, an Author, a Teacher, a Cop’s cop and my Friend.
He is survived by his wife Meryl and their three children Zachary, Jake, Talia
We were supposed to be teaching together at the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association (ILEETA) conference this week but other priorities had pulled both of us apart and in different directions, so that neither of us were able to attend the conference.
He was together with his family celebrating the sacred Jewish holiday of Purim when he died.
He was the author of two books: The well known… Terrorist Cop: The NYPD Jewish Cop Who Traveled the World to Stop Terrorists, 2010 and his textbook on terrorism investigations Terrorist Suicide Bombings: Attack Interdiction, Mitigation, and Response by Mordecai Dzikansky, Gil Kleiman, et al. 2011
He worked with us at The Law Enforcement Survival Institute and was very active in trying to help other law enforcement professionals avoid, or mitigate, the traumas and hidden dangers of our profession. He suffered from many of these himself.
As a NYPD Manhattan South Homicide Detective on September 11, 2001, when terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center in New York City, Morty’s team of detectives were immediately dispatched to what would eventually be called Ground Zero to begin investigations. Continue reading
What’s New at LESI?
Pre-Recorded, Virtual, Blended and In-Person Training
Armor Your Self™ Facilitator Program
Executive Coaching and Executive Mastermind Groups
Wellness Driven Community Policing program
Resilience Pilot Project for every agency!
Tactical Resilience™ and Ethical Policing Project (TREPP)
We believe:
• Resilient Police Officers Promote Healthy Police Agencies
• Healthy Police Agencies Promote Resilient Communities
• Resilient Communities Promote Healthy Police Officers
If we don’t take care of our people, they won’t be able to take care of THE PEOPLE!
The Law Enforcement Survival Institute (LESI) is an assessment, consulting and training organization. We work with law-enforcement professionals and other first responders and their organizations who want to be at their best. Our focus is wellness and resilience.
We offer custom made solutions using a Consultative-Training/Assessment* process to help your… Continue reading
It is National Suicide Prevention Week and Month. There are lots of resources out there to help you. Now is a time to act!
Last year was the first year that the number of reported law enforcement suicides exceeded the number of Line of Duty Deaths. It’s happening again this year.
As of September 9, 2019 Blue H.E.L.P. has verified 142 suicides while the NLEOMF has only reported 83 Line of Duty Deaths.
So what are you willing to do to stop this problem from happening at your agency?
Do you have a suicide prevention program in your agency?
Well, you no longer have an excuse for not having a program. With a video produced by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), the Working Minds Program and the Carson J Spencer Foundation, and our CopsAlive.com roll call discussion guide you can create a ready made program the moment you finish reading this page.
Create your own police suicide prevention training… Continue reading
One of your peers is suffering; maybe you are too! They want to be good at their job and actually make the world a better place. However, one too many dead baby calls, and too many months on the night shift with all the drunks and people shoving their cell phones in your face and your partner has had enough. Of course all of this comes on top of the increased violence in your area and the unending tide of gang members plying their drug trade in your neighborhood and your peers are telling you to “suck it up” and “shake it off” — but you can’t. It’s bad enough that work is unending trauma and tragedy, but your spouse is nagging you about not being able to cover the bills this month and why you can’t make your kids recital tomorrow afternoon. Maybe you have experienced some of this too? So what do you tell your partner about why it’s important to take care of yourself? How do you endure this job until retirement and not eat your gun first?
The recent surge of police officer suicides should be a red flag to what is happening within our profession. We need to deal with law enforcement suicide as a symptom of something much more complex and insidious that is eroding our people from within. We spend lots and lots of money on technology to improve policing while at the same time forgetting that law enforcement is a people business. If we don’t take care of our people, they won’t be able to take care of THE PEOPLE!
Police resilience is about making sure… Continue reading
Have you read the 458 page softcover resilience textbook: Armor Your Self: How To Survive A Career In Law Enforcement and want to learn more?
We are bringing our Armor Your Self™ workshops to a city near you:
Armor Your Self™ 2019 Preliminary Spring Workshop Calendar includes workshops in Daytona Beach, Florida; Columbus, Ohio; Lansing, Michigan; Omaha, Nebraska; Pueblo, Colorado; Glendale, Arizona and one hosted by the Louisiana State Police.
To learn more or register for one of these workshops visit: https://armoryourself.com/register/
The Armor Your Self™ project is a powerful concept that will begin building the foundations of law enforcement health and wellness for your personnel, your families and for your organization.
The program is taught as a Resilience Research Learning Laboratory with all the participants researching, discussing and learning information that is specific, and important to them.
Each participant receives a copy of the 458 page softcover resilience textbook: Armor Your Self: How To Survive A Career In Law Enforcement by John Marx (a $24.95 value).
Participants will find the tools they need to recognize the symptoms of the toxic effects… Continue reading
John Marx and Chaplain Cary A. Friedman invite you to join us for a new online discussion LIVE webcast series about modern policing as part of our Tactical Resilience™ & Ethical Policing Project.
We want to ignite a thoughtful, and regular, discussion about issues critical to the success of modern policing and we want to involve you!
To that end we are planning regular LIVE webcasts that will last about an hour. They will involve a little discussion, a little training and a few guests along the way.
Please watch our welcome video:
Our sessions will be held regularly, approximately once a month, usually on a Wednesday at Noon Eastern Time.
Space will be limited to the first 100 people who register in advance.
Register here: https://tacticalresilience.org/online-training/
Each session will be recorded and posted on our CopsAlive YouTube Channel after the event
Please reach out by email or online and send us your thoughts before the webinar and we will incorporate them into the discussion… Continue reading
It’s National Suicide Prevention Week again (September 9th – 15th, 2018) in the United States which is a week-long campaign to inform and engage health professionals and the general public about suicide prevention and warning signs of suicide.
I lost one of my law enforcement friends to suicide in 2007 and that’s what prompted me to start CopsAlive.com.
In my opinion, law enforcement suicide is a symptom of what ails our profession, and it should be an priority issue to resolve — but it hasn’t been.
This year, I thought I would follow suit with some other enlightened thinkers on this issue and challenge you to think about how our law enforcement culture contributes to suicide, and how we can fix that… Continue reading
Download Jack Digliani's Newest Critical Incident Handbook
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Download A Free Copy of our CopsAlive LE Suicide Prevention Rollcall Discussion Guide
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Visit the Veteran Association's National Center for PTSD
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John Marx - BIO
Chuck Rylant - BIO
Mark St. Hilaire - BIO
Scott Silverii - BIO
Jack Digliani - BIO
Lisa Wimberger - BIO
Christa Cassilis-Hayburn - BIO
Diane Sieg - BIO
Laurie Taylor - BIO
Joe Padilla - BIO
Tina Ulatowski - BIO
Cary Friedman - BIO
Raymond Craig - BIO
Janice Hoffman - BIO
Brian Cain - BIO
Tammy Featherstone - BIO
Brian McVey - BIO
