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12 personal protection reminders for LEOs

Follow these reminders to lessen the risk to your family, property and self

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A take-home vehicle can be a valuable benefit, but you have to recognize that the benefit comes with risks to you, your family and your property.

Photo/PoliceOne

Article updated October 11, 2018

Although threats of revenge are a sad but true part of the job, most of those threats go unrealized. In a few tragic cases however, criminals do in fact attack officers’ homes and families. Here are 12 quick reminders of personal steps you can take to help protect your loved ones, your property and yourself:

  1. Make sure your home phone number is not publicly listed.
  2. Limit access to your Facebook profile, photos and events to actual friends and family, the people you know in real life. Social media accounts can give up a lot of information about you, your work, and your family if you aren’t careful about privacy settings and limiting what you share.
  3. Avoid having obvious law enforcement-related deliveries (like law enforcement magazines or gear from Police Stuff, Inc. delivered in a Police Stuff logo-emblazoned box) sent directly to your home and make clear that you do not want your rank included on anything sent to your home. The safest option is to get a P.O. Box and have an alternative street address you can use for package deliveries (some private mail drop businesses let you use their street address for UPS, Fed. Ex. and other similar package delivery services).
  4. If you take your patrol vehicle or squad home, avoid parking it in front of your house if possible.
  5. Don’t wear your uniform in your private vehicle.
  6. Watch what you wear in public. Hats, T-shirts, jackets, or sweatshirts that announce the fact that you’re a cop can draw unwanted attention.
  7. Vary your route to and from work and keep an eye on who’s behind you when you drive.
  8. When you come in and out of your home, make a conscious effort to take a second and look around.
  9. Consider the address you’re using on applications that require you to list your place of employment along with your home address. Whenever possible, avoid associating the two.
  10. Think like someone who might want to figure out where you live and try to “look for yourself.” Is your home in your name and your address readily available through public property records searches? Does an Internet search for your name pull up personal information you might want to try and have removed?
  11. Ask trusted neighbors to always tip you off if they see something or someone odd in the area. Have they noticed someone who has started driving by your house regularly and paying particular attention to your home?
  12. Carry off-duty. The topic of off-duty carry is too big an issue to ignore, especially when it is so regularly and starkly presented in the news headlines of the day.

Stay safe, on duty and off.

Doug Wyllie writes police training content on a wide range of topics and trends affecting the law enforcement community. Doug was a co-founder of the Policing Matters podcast and a longtime co-host of the program.

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