Advice & Humor
Advice from Bullethead
Bullethead: Oh, Grow Up!
Stop sending sniveling emails to brass & start confronting the person who bugs you.
Bullethead: Change Is Coming
How we do police work is evolving at rapid speed. Expect it & embrace it.
Bullethead: Rejection Detection
Be honest with yourself about the reasons why departments may be turning you down, over and over again.
Bullethead: So Young, So Dumb
If you praise a cop who runs hot on nothing but ego—no matter if your praise is qualified—you’re doing the cop, yourself, your department & your community a disservice. Tell that cop to get in line!
Bullethead: Love It or Leave It
I hear is all the time—the excuse that this or that is a waste of time. Do your job, do it well or ship out. Police work’s too dangerous to carry dead weight.
Bullethead: Integrity for Dummies
Integrity is a personal matter—if you do it right, others will take notice; but if you think you’ve gotten the short end too many times, it might be time to look for a new profession.
Bullethead: Heartbroken
Bullethead explains how to handle a cop fiancé who’s suspected of cheating—with another cop
Bullethead: Techno Trashed
I'm sick of all this techno junk! Yeah—even this stupid computer I'm using now...
Bullethead - Blue Light Special
I work for a large East Coast agency. My agency hires all young, know-it-all kids—21-year-olds with no life experience. They come from what I call the “entitlement generation.” Mistake No. 1: The department hires them. Mistake No. 2: It pushes them through the academy to fill a body slot. Mistake No. 3: Supervisors won’t fire them despite an FTO’s warnings and clear observations.
Bullethead - Fed Up Fit Cop
I go to great lengths to maintain my health and fitness for performance on the job and my overall well-being. I’ve tried to make physical fitness a priority in my department, but my advice often falls on deaf ears. Do you have any advice for how to make physical fitness a bigger priority in an agency?
Bullethead: Pick Your Battles
Don’t take this guy head-on or you will lose. Educate him about how cops show respect and mourn the loss of one of our own. Point to flags at half-mast and other ways we show respect, and he’ll come around. Communicate, don't fight, and you shall win
Bullethead: Join Your Union!
I’m going to start by knocking a few of your teeth down your throat. Unions get their strength from numbers, so not belonging is about as smart as cleaning your gun while it’s loaded.
Bullethead: Options, Options
Never forget that starting over is about as much fun as slamming your unit into the chief's G-ride because you were staring at their (adult) daughter's rear end.
Bullethead: Home Life, Work Life
The stability in an officer's life that comes from a good supportive home is essential to the long term success of the officer, their department and the law enforcement mission.
Bullethead: Seniority Situation
So, the time is ripe for making a stand, or you and the other guy will be getting pooped on for years.
Bullethead: Should Suicide Attempt Cost Cop His Job?
The FOP damn sure should get involved in personnel matters—that's their job, along with securing pay and benefits.
Bullethead: Lazy is Stupid
The reality: The sergeants and watch commanders are just too lazy to take a message.
Bullethead: Small-Town Cops Seek Leverage
Now, getting a union up and going is about as far from my sweet spot as a chihuahua is from a police K-9.
Bullethead: Remember Why You’re Here
Even seasoned cops in a high-profile unit can turn into complete idiots for very little reason.
Bullethead: The whining stops now
I was maybe 5 percent of the way up the hill when my legs turned into jelly, my lungs burned and I could no longer even see the top.
Bullethead: Auxiliary Seeks Acceptance
You don’t know this job. I’ve been doing it for years, and I’m still learning.
Bullethead: Hail to the Jackass
The problem must be that not enough chiefs are paying attention. The best part is when these same boneheads go after a sergeant or lieutenant when a particular unit is struggling with morale.
Bullethead: Growing Pains
I really want to be a good supervisor and I know my job is different now, but I just don’t know how to make the change.
Bullethead: We Need a Union, But…
"I work for a smaller department of 18 full-time guys. I’ve attempted to unionize a couple of times. The guys get talked out of it by brass who promise them everything under the sun."
Bullethead: Beyond the Job Description
Bullethead gives both barrels to an investigator who is frustrated about being hassled by the brass for making traffic stops.
Bullethead: What's the Point?
I’m certainly not qualified to do much more than give strong and correct opinions.
Bullethead: Tac-Team Dynamics
Your problem is she has different equipment than you and you thought SWAT was still a male stronghold.
Bullethead: Fool in Love
Listen up, bozo boy, you're running directly into a lose-lose situation.
Bullethead: Pokey or Patrol?
Patrol is the backbone of police work, but it often gets treated like the backside.
Bullethead: Help Wanted
Laziness & bad attitudes will spread like fleas on a crack-house dog.
Bullethead: Doodie Duty
I'm now begging entities to which I don't even pray that he hasn't found his teeth with that brush.
Bullethead: Battling Bigotry
In a few short years, you’ll hate everyone and you won’t have to feel bad about hating just one group.
Bullethead: Bored with Apple Pie
So, your town features only drunks, shoplifting and disturbances? I don’t believe it—look harder.
Bullethead Hits a Nerve
I appreciate all letters from all the hard-working cops out there. I especially like the ones that agree with me, but I’ll happily take feedback from confused people as well.
Bullethead: Accessory to Adultery
I’m sure there are plenty of old-time cops who don’t think a little duty booty is a big deal.
Bullethead: Slip, Slide & Away
To whom are you loyal? The entire public, or just the half dozen or so places that provide cheap food?
Bullethead: Automatic Vehicle Locators
If I'm not dead and they're looking for me, the AVL is a fantastic tool.
Bullethead: Internal Damnation
A lot of half-truths and “misunderstandings” end up as the labels used to cover lies. There’s no place for lies or liars in our profession under any label.
Bullethead: Burned-out patrol cop looks for advice
Permanent positions will give you something you can’t get with rotations: journeymen.
Bullethead: Defective Detectives
When the detectives ask you to do something, do it with the pride you felt the first time you put on that badge.
Bullethead: Dispatch vs. Cops
First things first. Last time a cop was shot at, did any of the rounds skip past a dispatcher's head?
Bullethead: The Badge, the Gun—
I would take another route with Officer Rico Suave.
Bullethead: Problem-Oriented Policing
I encourage any ignorant folks—like the person who wrote this letter—to suspend their myopic ways and look at the big picture.
Bullethead: Stuck in the Middle
He may be running the department into the ground, but at this point it's still his department, and it's unacceptable for one of his supervisors to come out publicly against him—you must be sneaky about it.
Bullethead: No Patience for No-Loads
I'm also guessing that neither Detective McFadden nor Officer Soto thought the arrests they were making would eventually end up as two of the preeminent Supreme Court decisions ever to affect law enforcement.
Bullethead: Labor vs. Chief
There are also lots of cops who will not volunteer their own time to help out their fellow officers as a board member, but will quickly take their union's board to task for the slightest thing.
Bullethead: Young Blood, Old School
You may never change the old timers, but you control your own behavior and attitude. Thirty years is a long time if you aren't having fun, so grow a few extra layers of skin and go have some fun.
Bullethead: Parental Guidance
I've found parents I would not trust to feed my fish for a weekend screwing up kids in the best and worst neighborhoods, and I'm sure all the other hard-working coppers out there have run across the same thing.
Bullethead: News Worthy
It's been awhile, but I still remember what one of my academy instructors said about the first traffic stop we would make when we were finally on our own: "You will realize that everyone is looking at you. The reason they are looking at you is because you have a bitchin' job and they wish they had it." Consider Reno 911 a form of humorous flattery.
Featured Columnist
Most Recently Commented