Weinblatt Police Training Videos: Driver Call Back Traffic Stops and Dealing with the Opposite Sex

Today I am blogging about two police training videos I created which were featured on the law enforcement website www.PoliceLink.com. I write regularly for PoliceLink. The videos are also up on my youtube page: http://www.youtube.com/user/richardweinblatt

I hosted, produced, directed, and edited, the videos with volunteer actor assistance from recent graduates from the Seminole Community College Police Academy that I manage here in Central Florida.

The February 18, 2008 video, "Dealing with the Opposite Sex," was based on my popular PoliceLink.com article "Ten Tips for Dealing with the Opposite Sex" published on November 26, 2007. I'm in the video as is Officer Nicole Gusaeff and Officer Daniel Barnard from our SCC Basic Law Enforcement Academy class #87. I even included some funny outtakes/bloopers at the end of the video. Nicole and Daniel were good sports and obviously had a lot of fun being featured in the video. I think the blooper part is more popular with folks than the serious section of the video.










The article can be read here: (http://www.policelink.com/training/articles/7528-ten-tips-for-dealing-with-the-opposite-sex)

This was a fun video and followed another, even more popular PoliceLink.com article (from October 10, 2007) that I wrote. The article was on a traffic stop concept not practiced by officers as much as driver's side or passenger side approach. My driver call back article can be read on PoliceLink.com here: http://www.policelink.com/training/articles/5883-safe-driver-call-backs

That first video, which I created on January 12, 2008, is based on my article. It starred me and my voluntary assistant, Officer Gabriel Garcia. Gabriel graduated from our SCC Basic Law Enforcement Academy class #90. He was a good sport and had fun acting in the video, although I did not incorporate an outtakes/bloopers section until the second video.

You can see the first video on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dirc5wOFOgc

What surprises some people is the time it takes to shoot these videos. It takes three or four hours at least to set up the shots and do several takes. The multiple takes are needed to account for mistakes, as well as multiple camera angles. It then takes a couple hours to do the editing. I use iMovie HD 6 either on my Apple PowerMac G5 Quad Processor computer or my Apple MacBook Pro laptop to do the editing on my movies.

I've gotten tons of feedback from both current and aspiring law enforcement officers. Of course, as with any tactical training, you can get ten police instructors in a room and get ten different opinions on how to do things. With all my videos, I stress that they are only guides to general law enforcement situations. Specific legal and tactical guidance has to be sought from agency trainers and departmental policies.

Another type of video I've done has dealt with topical law enforcement issues of the day. Some examples of them were the Andrew Meyer University of Florida Taser incident, the Ohio police Taser situation, and the Paris Hilton lack of interest in being role model statement from her appearance on Late Night with David Letterman.

I am thinking of doing either more of these police training videos and/or more police expert opinion on the topical law enforcement issue of the day videos (prior examples of these can also be seen on my youtube page: http://www.youtube.com/user/richardweinblatt). What do you think?