June 1, 2026 Training Philosophy: Law Enforcement vs. Private Sector "Live like a flock feeding together with equal right in one common pasture. " -Zeno of Citium This month I’m going to re-visit an old topic, but it’s not so old that it’s irrelevant. In fact, it comes up multiple times per year. Recently, in an exchange with another user on the DFIR Discord server, a training opportunity was posted. Some of it was law enforcement (LE)-restricted, some of it was not. So I posed the question: Why is (some) of this training LE-only? The answer I got back was less than substantive, but it begs the larger question yet again: What is covered in law enforcement restricted training that is so specialized, secretive or otherwise sensitive that it needs to exclude everyone else? The Purpose of Training In order to thoroughly dive into this topic, we must first take a step back and ask, what is the purpose of training, particularly in the fi...
May 1, 2026 Observations In The Land of Experts " It is impossible for a person to begin to learn what he thinks he already knows" -Epictetus Being dubbed an “expert” is a double-edged sword. It can, and often does, indicate a higher degree of knowledge about a particular topic or practice. The formal designation of “expert” also frequently means you can demand a higher price for your expertise. It can also lead to an inflated sense of self-importance, as I’ve observed repeatedly over the years. I was only ever adjudicated an “expert” once in my time in law enforcement. The irony was, for all of the trials and testimony I had in my home jurisdiction, it was a case outside of that jurisdiction for which I was put forth as and deemed an “expert” by the Court. For my time both in and outside of law enforcement, I’ve observed this as a common practice by prosecutors – that is, to NOT have their law enforcement witnesses who may have expertis...