Author: Editor

John Marx was a Police Officer for twenty-three years and served as a Hostage Negotiator for nineteen of those years. He worked as a patrol officer, media liaison officer, crime prevention officer and burglary detective. Also during his career he served as administrator of his city's Community Oriented Governance initiative through the police department's Community Policing project. Today John combines his skills to consult with businesses about improving both their security and their customer service programs. John retired from law enforcement in 2002. When one of his friends, also a former police officer, committed suicide at age 38, John was devastated and began researching the problems that stress creates for police officers. He decided he needed to do something to help change those problems and he wanted to give something back to the profession that gave him so much. He started a project that has evolved into CopsAlive.com. Put simply, the mission of CopsAlive is to save the lives of those who save lives! CopsAlive.com gathers information, strategies and tools to help law enforcement professionals plan for happy, healthy and successful careers, relationships and lives.
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As Cops We Must Prevent Police Officer Suicides

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Police Officer Suicides are becoming an epidemic.  Over the last several years suicides by police officers have out numbered the number of officers killed in the line of duty by 3 to 1.  It is estimated that between 400 to 500 officers take their own lives each year.  This is a major problem and as law enforcement professionals we must resolve this problem ourselves.  The first step is awareness and then we must take action.  I started this blog at www.copsalive.com when a friend and former Sheriff’s Patrol Sergeant committed suicide.  No one saw it coming and in my twenty three years as a police officer… Continue reading

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As a Cop Are You Achieving Your Vision in Life or In Your Career?

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Do you have a vision for what it is that you really want in life or in your police career?  Police officers are just like most people when it comes to procrastinating about a plan for their lives or even their careers in law enforcement.  Experts and psychologists agree that when people spend time really articulating what they want, they have a much better chance of getting it, so life planning and career planning can have a tremendous impact upon your success.  This usually includes writing down your thoughts and goals so you have a sort of map to get where you want to go.  Here’s an interesting video from YouTube that might also help you.

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Cops, Blogging and Business

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Cops and other law enforcement professionals are just like other people when it comes to wanting a way to increase their income. Many like me have taken to creating side business on the internet and in that vein several people have asked me lately for resources intended for bloggers.  So like a good blogger, I decided to write an article to describe some of my thoughts.

Can you earn a living on the internet?  Some say so, and many say the way to build your base of support is through blogging or writing a frequent article on a blog or web log. Continue reading

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Master Wellness Training

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While working on the CopsAlive blog post “Successful Cop – Jeffery Hart“, I came across another interesting and successful police officer who is doing cool things to help you and your law enforcement agency create a successful Wellness Program.  I love it when a police officer is successful in his or her career and then does something else to improve the world or their own lives and it’s an added bonus when they do something that helps other cops.  That’s what this thirty year detective does with his wellness traiining. Continue reading

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Successful Cop – Jeffery Hart

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Lt. Col. Jeffery Hart is the Assistant Chief of Police in Morganfield Kentucky, he is a successful cop and he is a lucky man.  I came across Jeff’s story when I was researching the heart defect that took the life of Colorado Police Officer Nick Heine.  See our blog on “Are You Planning for the Un-Expected?”  Officer Heine was a healthy 30 year old police officer who collapsed when he was running from one disturbance call to another.  He died later at the hospital from an undiscovered heart defect.  Jeff was 43 years old when he was responding to a robbery alarm and had a major heart problem that nearly took his life.  Jeff was lucky and had a chance to change his life and health, Nick was not.  How’s your health?  What do you do on a daily basis to maintain your wellness? Continue reading

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Even Cops Can Get Hooked by Phishing

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CopsAlive was on the wrong side of a phishing trip two weeks ago when we were hacked by a phishing scheme that used our server to host a false web page for a well known bank. It is believed that the hackers were trying to collect personal information from customers of that bank and used our domain to hide their scheme. Then yesterday we were hacked by a group that make a game of taking over sites and leaving nasty messages in place of the actual site. We’ve learned a few things from all this albeit the hard way. Let us share some tips for you. Continue reading

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Cops and Superstitions

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Today’s date 08/08/08 apparently has so much power as a lucky number that the Chinese Olympic Committee actually picked today as the date of the opening ceremonies for the Summer Olympic Games with a starting time of 8:08:08 PM!

Are you superstitious? Continue reading

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Successful Cop: Chuck Rylant

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I recently had the opportunity to interview a police officer who really has planned for success in his life and his career.

Chuck Rylant began his law enforcement career in 1998 with the Lompoc Police Department in California. During those four years, he worked in a patrol car and later as a field training officer. While working graveyards on patrol, he chipped away at his bachelor degree by taking one class at a time. Looking back, he can remember struggling to stay awake while doing homework between 3:00 AM – 6:00 AM when there were only a few calls during his patrol shift. Unfortunately, he went through a divorce and had to put off finishing college for a couple of years while he got his “life in order”. Continue reading

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When Enough is Enough?

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I can think of so my topics to write about using this title but in honor of George Carlin I’m going to write about “stuff”. Check out George’s thoughts on “Stuff”.

These thoughts struck me as we are thinking about moving into a new home and have way too much stuff, which is what I worked hard for as a cop for over twenty years. Now I’m wondering if I really ever needed all this stuff (and what I could have done with the money had I not bought all of this “stuff”). Continue reading

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When’s Your Independence Day?

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Yesterday the United States celebrated it’s Independence Day.  Many countries celebrate such a day to denote their coming of age and independence from the input and control of another’s influence.  Not many people celebrate such a day for their life but maybe we should.

What in your life do you NEED to become independent from?  A mortgage?  A bad relationship?  A job?  An unhealthy lifestyle?  What would financial independence look like for you?  What would freedom look like to you?  CopsAlive is built upon the premise that we should have a plan to survive and thrive in life and in our job.  What’s your plan? Continue reading