Jeff Berend, Publisher/General Manager Speaking on behalf of the entire Law Officer magazine team, I can’t tell you how glad we are to have this first issue in your hands.
We started our planning almost two years ago after we talked to many of you and determined there was a strong need for a law enforcement magazine that focuses on tactics, technology and training, and is credible, practical and authoritative. That planning turned to action earlier this year as we started working on the editorial content and look and feel. We hope you’re happy with the result, and we pledge to continuously strive to improve and challenge ourselves. We’ll produce three bimonthly issues this year, will move to nine issues in 2006 and monthly in 2007.
There are a number of important people behind this magazine. I really feel like we have the “dream team” for a law enforcement publication, and I want to tell you a little about the group.
Capt. Dale Stockton, our editor, is a 30-year law enforcement veteran. He’s also arguably the most published writer and photographer in the law enforcement profession. He received his master’s degree in criminal justice just last month, which shows he strives to challenge and better himself as a law enforcement professional. But mostly, he’s a forward-thinking, smart, humble guy, and we’re glad to have him leading our editorial charge. See his Editor’s Note on pg. 14 for more from Dale.
Keeping our editorial ship on course is managing editor Jed Henson. Jed has a strong background in publishing and editing, and he’ll be working with Dale to make sure our vision translates onto these pages.
Dale and Jed have assembled a terrific team of editorial contributors and advisers. They’re listed on the masthead on pg. 8, and we thank all of them for their continued ideas, enthusiasm and contributions.
Our art director is Dan DiPinto, who has extensive publishing design experience with Police magazine (when it was published in Carlsbad, Calif.) and more recently with Homeland First Response magazine.
Early in the process, we were lucky to snap up Marshall Spevak as our associate publisher/advertising director. Marshall has more than 17 years experience in law-enforcement publishing, first at Police and later at Law & Order. Working with Marshall is Liz Knittle, advertising associate, who’s brought terrific ideas and always has the needs of our readers and advertisers in mind first and foremost.
We’re grateful to have established a publishing partnership with PoliceOne, hands-down the best Web site in law enforcement. Special thanks to Alex Ford, Scott Buhrmaster and Kurt Kelley for all their advice, insight and assistance. You’ll see the benefits of that partnership throughout these pages, with special articles and exclusives from PoliceOne. You can set down your copy of Law Officer and go to www.PoliceOne.com for special content. Our goal is to have you covered in print and online.
In addition, we have a talented group of people on the publishing side at Jems Communications/Elsevier who’ve been essential to this launch: Tim Francis, associate publisher; Debbie Murray, marketing director; and Lynn Papenhausen, marketing manager. Thanks also to Kevin Hurley and Patricia Nornhold in the Philadelphia office for the corporate management support they’ve given us. Dozens of other staff members bring their skills and energy to Law Officer, and they’re also listed on our masthead pages.
We plan to tap into the extensive resources of parent company Reed Elsevier as well. We’re proud to share the same corporate parent with LexisNexis, a respected and progressive name in law enforcement. The book side of Elsevier publishes many of the top titles on topics like criminal justice, forensics, etc. And Reed Exhibitions produces the annual S.H.O.T. Show, ISC Expo and other events.
Finally, special thanks to our advertisers who took a leap of faith to support Law Officer in this premier issue—we appreciate them being here with us at the beginning.
I’ve spent a lot of time talking about us, giving you insight into the team behind Law Officer. From here out, our focus is on you, our readers—all 41,000 of you from coast to coast. We’re proud and humbled to have the opportunity to publish this magazine for you, and we won’t take it for granted. We appreciate your input and ideas. Our e-mail addresses and phone numbers are on pages 8 and 10—please contact us.
We hope you enjoy this issue and stay with us as a Law Officer reader for a long time to come.
—Jeff Berend, Publisher/General Manager