Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 4034 AMERICAN POLICE BEAT: DECEMBER 2016 Blood pressure high? Alot of law enforcement people suffer with high blood pressure, but there is a diet that will bring it down and may prevent gout at the same time. Go to “DASHDiet.org” for the details. DASH diet fans say the focus on whole grains, fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy products and reduced intake of salt, red meats, sweets and saturated fats, brings down the blood pres- sure and reduces levels of uric acid which brings on gout – an extremely painful disorder. Dangers of shift work If you work a late shift, you are disrupting your natu- ral biological rhythms which is to sleep when it’s dark and be up when it’s light. But there are things you can do to minimize impact of those midnight shifts including keeping the room as dark as possible that you sleep in and turn off all electronic devices. Eat three regular meals at the same time each day and don’t eat for at least four hours before you are going to bed. Try tak- ing one-half to one milligram of melatonin five to six hours before you go to sleep and if that doesn’t work, start off with one half a Unisom pill (the small blue ones) that you can buy over the counter. They work! Credit card declined again? The most common reasons your card could be declined: 1. If you make a big purchase far away from where you live and usually shop. 2. Purchases that are larger than usual. 3. Hotel and car rental companies that put a “hold” on your credit line to make sure they will get their money. 4. Your bank cuts your credit limit, usually because you have applied for more credit cards. Best way to stay safe? Call your credit card company if you are planning a large purchase or are travelling out of your area. Spread expenses among several credit cards, and request an increase in your credit limit. Best advice of all – pay all credit card bills in full every month. You will save thousands of dollars over the year. Protect your phone & home The experts say that one of the worst things you can do for your phone battery is to frequently drain it all the way down. It’s better to charge it more fre- quently and keep it from getting too low. Also, make sure your home is insured against a catastrophic loss and update it annually. Cover all your possessions – take inventory and estimate replacement costs us- ing the UPHelp Home Inventory app from United Policyholders. I t’s kind of like two trains on a collision course. Taxpayers, as well as many politicians and aca- demics, say we need more data about policing so we can make good decisions about what to work on and what’s already working. But in order to do that we need more data about every- thing from rates of crime to use of force to discrepancies between policies and perfor- mance. But Phoenix Law Enforce- ment Association President Ken Crane says that collecting such data will make it that much harder for cops to wage war on crime and crimi- nals. “The question citizens are go- ing to have to ask themselves after a point is, ‘What do we want our police agencies doing? Do we want you going out policing or do we just want you to be data col- lectors?’ The Phoenix Police De- partment is an agency that is still short approximately 550 sworn officers from where they should be. At last count Phoenix had 910 first responders spread over three shifts in a city that spans 530 square miles with a population of 1.6 million residents. Under current conditions officers routinely respond on calls without backups and on some days officers begin their shifts with dozens of calls waiting for them. Citi- zens find themselves having to wait longer for police services. Add to this mix the in- creased reporting require- ments from the Feds and you have a perfect storm sce- nario where something has to give. But the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association may not have as much to worry about as they think. Despite the fact that the Department of Justice re- cently announced it would begin collecting information on the incidents from police departments, it said nothing at all about how said infor- mation would be collected. Crane said most police agencies don’t have an is- sue sharing information with either each other or the public. “There’s not a problem with being transparent,” he said. Back in 2014, Congress passed the Death in Custody Reporting Act. The law requires state and federal law enforcement agencies to submit data to the department about civil- ians who died during inter- actions with law enforce- ment or in their custody. But Congress did not make any such demands on local law enforcement agencies. Ken Crane is the President of the Phoe- nix Law Enforcement Assocation. Filling out forms is no solution It’s the Holiday season! Do you know what to get that special law enforcement officer in your life? Why not a subscription to American Police Beat? Go to www.apbweb.com. Paperwork?