About




	About the Blog
	What’s it for? A resource for students, academics and practitioners, Police Issues uses informed commentaries and regular news updates to stimulate discussion and enhance literacy about key law enforcement and criminal justice issues. How does it work? News items are updated daily; opinion pieces are published each week. Unless otherwise noted, everything is the blogger’s original work. A note to educators You may reproduce and distribute any posting, including .pdf files, for non-commercial use as long as each copy bears the author’s name and the website address www.policeissues.com. For more information about the terms of this license click on the Creative Commons (cc) logo under the search box on the top right. If there are any questions or if you’d like to reproduce and distribute copies of Jay’s journal articles please e-mail. For hints on using PoliceIssues in class click here. A note to students Referencing the site is fine. Copying from it, even if you substitute your own words, isn’t. Police Issues is thoroughly indexed by Google and other engines. It’s also searched by Turnitin, an anti-plagiarism service widely used in higher education. Subscribe to newsletter or RSS feed PoliceIssues publishes a weekly e-mail newsletter with summaries and links to current stories. Click here if you’d like to subscribe. To open the RSS feed in your browser, click here.
	About the Blogger
	My name is Julius Wachtel, although most everyone calls me “Jay”. It’s a nickname I used while working undercover in Phoenix and that stuck through the years. I retired in 1998 after 23 years as an ATF special agent and supervisor. Most of my work experience is in gun trafficking and bombing investigations, with duty stations in Phoenix, Helena and Los Angeles. I also served as a police sergeant in Oregon and as a sergeant in the U.S. Army military police in Vietnam and stateside. Since 1998 I’ve worked as a criminal justice consultant and as a lecturer at the Division of Politics, Administration and Justice, California State University, Fullerton. Click here for my class website. My educational background includes a Ph.D. in Criminal Justice, acquired during a career break in 1982 at the State University of New York at Albany. My master’s is from Arizona State University and my bachelor’s was awarded in 1971 by Cal State Los Angeles. For the last few years my special area of interest has been criminal justice during the Soviet period, and particularly the Great Moscow Show Trials of 1936-38. (I recently completed a historical novel manuscript about this event, which I’m naturally trying to peddle.) Please don’t let anything I blog or post reflect on anyone but me. Unless it’s attributed to someone else everything you’ll read is my own hot air. Thanks for reading! Jay Home Top