PSWA Post Mortem--Friday

Our first presentation was given by John Schembra on Pursuit/Emergency Response Driving.

Of the 599 who died in the line of duty last year, 182 were killed in traffic accidents.

Often the officers weren't wearing their seat belts resulting in death. 

An intersection has the greatest potential for collisions. 

Excess speed major cause of accidents along with loss of control of the vehicle. 

The goal should be getting to the scene as safely as possible. 

Next was the panel, The Truth is Out There.  Mysti Berry moderated this panel which was about legends, mysticism and scientific/technical information in a story. David Knop and I were the two who talked about spirits and Indian legends while J. L. Greger and Camille Minichino stuck to the scientific information in their books. 

The Short and Long of it-All About Anthologies

Mike Black moderated and the panelists were Joseph Badal, Mike Brandt, Sarah Cortez, Barbara Hodges, and Kathy McIntosh. Interesting panel, because the panelists disagreed quite a bit.

Mysti Berry told us all about Focusing Your Story with the Dramatic Question The pwer of the story comes from the driving question. 

The panel Media Promotion and Press Releases was moderated by Mike Brandt and the panelist were Jim Guigli, Austin Comacho, Catherine McGreevy, MaryLou Anderson and me. Nothing new or earth shattering came out of this panel, though we all had different promotion we liked best.

Tough Guys and PIs came next with Pete Klismet moderating and Mike Brandt, Joe Badal, Jim Hasse, Danny Smith and Joe Haggerty discussed the fundamentals of conducting an investigation from their experience in different areas of law-enforcement. 

One of the best panels was Telling You Where to Go about police dispatchers. John Schembra moderated, and the panelist, each who had been a police dispatcher were Michelle Perin-Callahan, Thonie Hevron, Vanessa Rutledge and Bob Calkins.

It was a long day filled with wonderful information.

Many of us went off to dinner, but those who volunteered stayed behind to rehearse for an old-fashioned radio play.