CEOSF Officer Safety Newsletter

WINTER 2025 - Happy New Year friends! As we kick 2025 off with a great start, the Foundation is excited to share what has been going on this quarter. We gained new Regional Reps, sponsors, partners, and donors. We were also excited to give out our annual international awards in November. 2025 will bring some new offerings from the Foundation and we hope to build even more relationships! Our Mission Statement: "The Code Enforcement Officer Safety Foundation exists to promote best practices for the safety of Code Officials across the world; to provide a resource for officials; report incidents; provide up-to-date training and to encourage a high standard of professionalism within our chosen profession."   Welcome Our New Regional Representatives    CHRIS CAPRAUN (Region 8) Chris was appointed by the Board of Directors in November and is a Code Enforcement Officer in South Carolina. He is a Code Official Safety Specialist and has earned his ICC Zoning and Property Main...

  by Justin Edson, CCEA, COSS   The results are in from the national survey and the data proves a positive trend.   The Foundation created a simple survey to understand the current data on what uniforms, equipment, and training is provided to agencies. The survey received 224 responses across 41 states (and our friends in British Columbia). Great turnout! The highlights include: 78% wear uniforms 49% have metal badges 37% have body armor (25% external & 12% concealed) 39% have police radios 30% have OC Spray Reviewing unbiased data is important. Understanding other people's point of view is important. I have worked at or supervised teams across 5 municipalities. The uniforms and equipment we were provided varied across all 5 agencies. Code Enforcement is not what it was 10 years ago. A decade ago I would never have imagined we would take a leading role in sidewalk vendors, homeless camps, marijuana regulations, etc. At one agency, due to low law enforcement staffing, ...

by Scott Kirshner, M.Ed., COSCI, INCI Training is a never ending process!   The Code Enforcement Officer Safety Foundation is the leading international non-profit that is solely dedicated to advocating for the safety of all code officials.   One of the most important decisions you can make is to choose safety. Unfortunately, many individuals do not think about safety until they are in a situation where their safety is in jeopardy. If you have not prepared prior to an incident, you may not be mentally or physically prepared to effectively respond. If you fail to assess the incident, make sense of what is occurring, reach a decision, and respond in an effective and legal manner the outcome may result in your victimization. Considering that many violent encounters occur extremely fast, you will not have a lot of time to process what is happening and respond to an attack. Training matters.   It is not uncommon for established trainers to reach a point where they get ...

  by Kirk Palmer, Master Code Officer (GA), COSCI, COSS “ The stalker is akin to any other terrorist; he or she seeks to unnerve his or her target through intimidation and the fear of the unknown…” Anonymous Police Detective assigned to his department’s “Anti-Stalking” Unit One of the things I love about CEOSF is the exchange of information on our “report incident” page. I am astounded, although rarely surprised, at some of the incidents reported. In this day and age, people are unpredictable and emboldened by a criminal justice system that is often overwhelmed and aloof. In this article, I will be addressing something that seems to be occurring more and more to code officials: stalking.  W hile doing research for this article, I took a look at CEOSF’s “report incident” data and found at least nineteen incidents classified as stalking or had elements of stalking but were classified as other incidents. The incidents ranged from ...