Officer Randal Simmons was assigned to the elite SWAT Team of the LAPD and it was the first Line of Duty Death in the storied history of the SWAT Team.

SWAT is an acronym for “Special Weapons and Tactics” and members of the SWAT Team are the most proficient, highly trained, and specialized members of the police. There is a saying in policing circles, “when a citizen is in trouble, the citizen calls a cop, when a cop is in trouble, they call the SWAT Teams (and other specialized Emergency Service Police Officers). The LAPD SWAT time is legendary both within and outside of the Public Safety community.

This horrific incident, in which a man with reportededly a history of mental illness, highlights the danger and potential deadliness of “domestic disturbances” that are responded to by public safety officers on a daily basis. Often, public safety personnel have very little information what is going on inside a confined location and must make decisions with vague or incomplete information.

Take care and stay safe.

Joe Pascarella

One of the enduring struggles in public safety on an operational basis is community interaction and a large barrier to community interaction has been communication in that public safety workers often work in areas with many different cultures and languages. For example, in Los Angeles, there are 224 different languages spoken. Improving communication skills between the community and public safety workers is advantageous in every respect, from day to day interaction to large scale disorders. After numerous social disorders in the 1960’s, the government conducted studies and determined that the police were removed from the community and needed to interact better. Since that time, the United States has become much more culturally diverse and hopefully technology such as the Phraselator is a viable attempt to bridge communication gaps.

Take care and stay safe.

Joe Pascarella