Build It Now, Stay Steady When It Matters Most As we face the possibility of upcoming homeland plotting by terrorist groups, psychological readiness is your foundation. These skills help you stay calm, think clearly, and support each other in any crisis, whether it’s an attack, a natural disaster, or life suddenly going off the rails. If you’ve spent the past year building emergency plans, running drills, and practicing “what if” scenarios, you’re exactly where you need to be. Keep going. You’re not just preparing, you’re building real resilience for yourself, your family, and your community when it matters most. Here’s what we can do next to prepare and stay resilient. Educate Without Fear: When we talk to others about preparedness, the tone matters. The goal is not fear-based. The goal is to give them information, tools, and then most importantly, confidence. Within your family, for example, controlling the narrative means framing the conversation around what you can control, even during something as overwhelming as a terrorist attack. Replace fear-driven talk with practical direction. Use clear, strong language: “Here’s what we do if X happens,” or “We’re safe right now, let’s stick to our plan.” Walk each member of your family through actionable steps: getting to shelter, locking down a workspace, identifying exits, staying put until it’s safe to move. When people have rehearsed actions, their bodies and minds switch into those patterns automatically, even under extreme stress. Helping Children Cope: Children can and do process events very differently, and they depend heavily on the adults around them to set the emotional tone. Keep discussions age appropriate and grounded in the calmest way possible. Do not expose them to graphic news footage or frightening speculation. It overwhelms them and provides no useful information. Instead, focus on safety: who they stay with, where they go, how adults will protect them. Small gestures like holding a hand, offering a hug, sitting beside them all have a very real grounding effect. Use simple, straightforward language: “We have a plan. We know what to do. You’re safe with me.” That sense of predictable structure is what helps kids stay emotionally balanced during and after a crisis.

I want to dive deeper into something that sits at the core of policing, training, and the human experience—but rarely gets the airtime it deserves: Emotional regulation is one of the most powerful forms of crime prevention we have. Not technology. Not policies. Not equipment. Human regulation. Human capacity. Human control. Because when you strip away all the noise, most of what law enforcement deals with is emotion without direction: People who never learned to pause. People who never learned to sit with discomfort. People who never learned to name a feeling before acting on it. People who were raised in environments where chaos was the norm and regulation didn’t exist. Every cop knows this pattern: Somebody can’t handle anger → becomes an assault Somebody can’t handle shame → becomes a lie, a cover-up, or avoidance Somebody can’t handle fear → becomes violence or self-destruction Somebody can’t handle stress → becomes addiction Somebody can’t handle grief → becomes isolation or suicide And this isn’t just individuals. This is generational. This is cultural. This is systemic. If we taught people how to regulate emotions early on: We would see fewer: • Domestic incidents • Fights • Road rage • Juvenile crimes • Relapses • Overdoses • Suicides • Mental health crises • Officer-involved uses of force • Broken relationships and broken families This isn’t hypothetical — it’s observable reality on every shift. Emotional regulation isn’t soft. It’s tactical. It’s the ability to: – Stay stable under pressure – Recognize the difference between a feeling and a fact – Think while the nervous system is screaming – Decelerate when everything inside wants to accelerate – Not weaponize emotion in conflict – Recognize when you’re escalating someone else without realizing it – Use calm as a strategy, not a luxury This is the same skill that makes elite operators effective in combat. It’s the same skill that makes high-level negotiators successful. It’s the same skill that keeps officers alive during critical incidents.

Did I do it right? Invite all your friends!!!