Are you a proactive, reactive, or inactive officer?

Rich Von Voigt

What type of officer are you and what do you expect of others with whom you work?

Are you a proactive officer, a reactive officer, or an inactive officer?

Sometimes you don't get what you expect from others or even give what is expected of you.

Here are a few things to consider.

Proactive officers come to work with a willingness to do the job and take every job as it comes and they tend to move about the day or night paying attention to the beat they have the people around them and also look out for their fellow officers.

They move with professional, courteous and tactical skills in most cases. Basically they are paying attention to detail and survival. Will back up on other calls.

Reactive officers come to work with the mindset, “If I get a call I'll handle it, do the best I need to do and move on to the next call as assigned. I'm here. Call me if you need me.”

They pay attention to personal issues tactical or otherwise. May back up if assigned otherwise may move in the direction of another officer depends on who, what, where etc.

Inactive officers are in it for a paycheck, benefits, and could really not be bothered with anything they need to do or take part in anything they are not assigned to do. They even tend to be second (or third!) at their own assigned calls. They have little or no use for tactical training. They just try to get in and out of a tour with little or no involvement.

We all know (and have worked with) these three personalities and we all know how they make us feel.

Which cop are you?

Be careful out there and please we don't have anyone else to call when we are in trouble take care of one another. Look after your brother and sister officers. Like them or not, socialize with them or not, you are the life line and they are yours. Be safe, be smart, be tactical, be alert, be there for each other.