Laura Motes - The Technological Future of Law Enforcement

As a former law enforcement officer who spent more than 20 years with the Athens-Clarke County Police Department, Laura Motes is interested in future changes and innovations that could make law enforcement even more effective.


Tech Advances
When one starts to think about the subject, the first – and quite possibly the most important – point is technical innovation. As new technology becomes readily available, law enforcement organizations could take advantage of these advancements in a way that has never been seen before. The available technical resources could change the landscape of criminal prosecution. Similarly to the advances of motor vehicles, drones could represent a new layer of motorized patrols.

Crime Software
Police departments now actually have the knowledge and technical background to use predictive software. They know what are the areas where crime is the most likely to occur, and these predictive technologies could further improve in the near future. The NHTSA (National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration) already uses this kind of software, and other data-driven solutions could be adopted in the near future.
Lie Detection
Despite its long history, lie detection is still not a very good, and most certainly not a very quick, tool. With the advances that are being made in neuroimaging, lie detection could become much more effective in the future, though its use would obviously raise other issues.

Laura Motes had a successful career with the police between 1993 and 2014, during which she often relied on technology to be more effective. She hopes that future generation of officers will be able to do the same, while considerably reducing crime in the world.

Sources:
https://leb.fbi.gov/2016/february/law-enforcement-organizations-possibilities-and-challenges-for-the-future

Laura Motes - Healthy Living and Emotions

As a former police officer, Laura Motes knows how important it is to stay emotionally calm no matter what.

When thinking about healthy living, many people focus on physical exercise, eating properly, and sleeping enough hours, and completely forget to pay attention to their emotional well-being.

Physical energy is what we need to be able to do any kind of work or activity. At the same time, to be able to perform well we need to have pleasant and positive emotions in addition to having physical energy.

Negative emotions such as fear, anxiety, anger, and sadness release stress hormones into our bodies. This is why they are associated with feeling toxic.

In addition to having a healthy body, healthy living is impossible without the capacity to skillfully manage emotions, have high positive energy, and achieve full engagement in both personal and professional life.

Emotional energy works very similarly to physical energy. Our emotions need a balance between exercise and recovery. When our emotional muscles are weak, for example if we lack confidence or have too little patience, we need to learn to push through our current emotional capacity and then rest and recover.

Not only do physical and emotional aspects of our lives work in a similar manner, but physical and emotional capacities are extremely interconnected.

When we have a deadline that we need to meet, we emotionally feel a sense of urgency. This emotion immediately influences our physical state. We start moving faster and working quicker to meet the deadline.

This is why mastering emotional energy is so important for a healthy and productive life, especially if you work in a profession with high levels of stress like Laura Motes, who was a police officer for twenty-one years.

Laura Motes - Healthy Living, Stress, and Recovery

Laura Motes worked as a police officer for twenty-one years and she knows a lot about stress.

Our bodies require stress in order to grow. This is true for physical, mental, and emotional aspects of our lives. Stress needs to be followed by renewal.

Laura Motes

A lot of people think that a healthy life is a stress-free life. This is simply not true. A muscle that does not experience any stress dies very quickly. A muscle that gets no rest breaks very quickly. Growth and health require both stress and recovery.

A healthy life is a life that has a balance of stress and recovery. All great athletes and performers in all areas of life have rituals that help them optimize moving between recovery and stress.

The more effective and precise your recovery rituals, the quicker you can move to high performance.

The bigger the challenge, the more precise the rituals need to be. The Navy is a great example of this. It has rituals so precise and exact that it is able to turn soft and slow teenagers into mission-driven, confident, lean soldiers in about ten weeks. Recruits are forced to build rituals around all areas of their lives. There’s a ritual for how they talk, how they walk, what time they wake up in the morning and go to bed, when they eat, what they eat, and how they act under pressure.

In the same manner you can introduce rituals, stress, and recovery in your life. For example, Laura Motes loves spending time outdoors. It helps her relax and rejuvenate.

Laura Motes - Tips For Preparing Your Home For A Flood

Laura Motes lives in rural Northeastern Georgia and is keenly aware that her home is in an area that is at risk of flooding, should weather conditions become particularly adverse. As such, she has taken a number of measures to prepare her home in case of such an emergency. These pointers will prove useful to anybody who is in a similar predicament.

 Establish An Evacuation Route
You should always plan for the worst possible outcome when considering flooding, which means that your priority should be you and whoever else lives in the home. As such, when preparing your plan, you need to map out an evacuation route that will take you out of the at-risk area as quickly as possible. You may want to conduct a few drills as well, to ensure you keep the route clear in your mind.

Establish Contacts
It is important that people are aware of your situation should you ever have to deal with a flood, so it is a good idea to establish a primary contact who you will be able to call in cases of emergency. This person should ideally be out of the area and can act as a central point of contact for all of your family members and friends so you can focus more of your time on dealing with the flood.

Pack Supplies
By keeping an emergency kit of supplies handy, Laura Motes notes that you will be able to survive should a flood leave you stranded. Pack long-lasting food, some basic first aid equipment and some useful equipment, such as multipurpose tools and portable phone chargers.
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Laura Motes - The Characteristics of Good Police Officers

Laura Motes served with the Athens-Clarke County Police Department for 21 years, spending 10 of those years as a Police Sergeant in the Uniform Patrol Division in West Precinct. She achieved career progression because she worked hard to develop on a professional level, in addition to having the many attributes that a person needs in order to be a successful police officer. If you are interested in a career in the police force, you need to have, or develop, the following characteristics to stand the highest possible chance of success.

Laura Motes

 

• A Thirst For Knowledge

At no point during your career as a police officer should you allow your knowledge to stagnate. What you learn during your basic training should be treated as a foundation for your development, rather than the end of it. During your career, you will be presented with many opportunities to train various skills, so consider your career goals and make sure to select courses that will bring you closer to achieving them. Furthermore, keep your eyes and ears open at all times, so that you can learn from those who have more experience than you.

• Confidence

You must be able to demonstrate an air of confidence, even when you are approaching risky situations. This is crucial when working with members of the public, as you will be taking on the role of authority figure. As such, a lack of confidence may lead to people doubting what you have to say or not trusting that you will do the things you claim you will. However, an important caveat to this quality is that you don’t allow yourself to descend into arrogance. Temper your confidence by recognizing that you always have room to develop, no matter how experienced you are.

• Resilience

Police work offers a wide range of challenges, many of which will test your patience as well as your abilities. It is important that you develop a thick skin and don’t take the emotional reactions of people that you encounter too seriously. Allowing the words of others, particularly those involved in crimes, to get under your skin could lead to undesirable reactions that damage cases or lead to misconduct in the field.

• Physical Fitness

Laura Motes has always focused on her physical fitness and she ensures that she eats well and engages in activities that improve her conditioning, such as long-distance running. Good police officers all have the same focus, as they must stay in top condition to stand the highest chance of successfully dealing with potential criminals. Focus on strength training, so that you can subdue people if the situation calls for it, but also ensure your cardiovascular conditioning is maintained in case you need to engage in on-foot chases.