July 2025 Newsletter

Welcome to our monthly newsletter. Lone Guardian believes in empowering the community through open communication and knowledge sharing. Therefore, our newsletters will inform you about our company's activities and provide information on areas critical to our cause. If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at loneguardianllc@outlook.com.

Events Attended

• Small & Rural Law Enforcement Executives Association Conference (July 2025)

Future Events

• MOCIC 45^th Annual Training Conference (September 2025)

• Events from Tactical Tracking Training School:

• Tactical Mantracking Law Enforcement Level II (September 2025)

• Tactical Mantracking and UAS Support Operations (October 2025)

• Vehicle and Foot Surveillance for Law Enforcement (November 2025)

• Tactical Mantracking Law Enforcement Level I (November 2025)

• Vehicle and Foot Surveillance for Law Enforcement (December 2025)

• Tactical Mantracking Law Enforcement Level III (December 2025)

Law Enforcement Insight

Author: Tamara Sparks, Lone Guardian Director of Crime Scene Operations

Are you a frustrated supervisor receiving a few low-quality images attached to a report? Are you an irritated officer, issued another unfamiliar camera?

Both these situations are the result of what we have seen in crime scene foundation classes. Agencies have multiple cameras, sometimes even different manufacturers, for their patrol officers and detectives to use on crash and crime scenes.

What agencies often fail to realize is that manufacturers frequently employ different controls for the same function. Switching between different brands can be very frustrating to a user. Even a different model within the same brand can be daunting. Images are essential to document cases, and devoting time to learn a camera is necessary to create court-quality images.

We have even encountered multiple cameras within the same brand where the functions were controlled differently. Those functions are vital to a properly exposed, non-blurry image. I’ve been shooting Nikon for work and fun since 2005. Each upgrade has required me to dedicate time to learning the menus and new function buttons on each device.

One agency had used a grant to purchase the same camera for their officers. These were “simple” point-and-shoot cameras. They did not have the abilities a Digital Single Lens Reflect (DSLR) has. There was no function to control depth of field (area in focus) or shutter speed for low-light situations. However, even with everyone using the same camera, considerable time was required to learn the functions and find optimal settings.

As a side note, remember that cell phones used for scenes can be subpoenaed into court. Personal phones, used for work, can lead to a legal quagmire.

Remember, officers are not generally trained or experienced in photography. Could additional training and a more comparable camera inventory help your agency?

Equine Corner

Author: Rachael Draaisma, Calming Signals & Scentwork Horses

(Taken from Facebook post June 24. 2025)

The first 2025 Summit of the Lone Guardian took place last week. It was a very special week! The first three days were dedicated to man-tracking. The classes were taught by Larry Wilkinson and Talon Wilkinson of the Tactical Tracker Training School. I taught the last four days. The programme included lesson days on calming signals and scentwork. The small groups created an intimate atmosphere and participants got a lot of individual attention. This allowed me to guide several participants individually with using calming signals in getting to know two horses. Everyone needed slightly different instructions to get the horse to come. ‘It's like magic’, said one participant. I can imagine that this is what it feels like.

During the scentwork days, we also guided several horses. Assessing the horse during the several scentwork exercises is a focus here, how he tracks (with eyes, nose, both), to what extent the scentwork task is set up in such a way that there is an optimal balance between movement and relaxation: leading to an active relaxation. Whether they search with the right internal motivation, and much more. Needless to say these days go a lot further in terms of depth than just scattering a feed.

One of the Lone Guardian's missions is to support searches for missing persons from the native tribal community. They do this using drones, tactical tracking techniques, and in the future, horses. It is not for nothing that this is why I was out with the horses every day. There has been very big progress with all the horses. Also with Sophie, you can see her in the picture with some of the summit participants. Of course she was not held or forced to be in the photo. It was her own initiative. Also, a picture of Belle, with whom we also started the track search. And two pictures of some participants of the days.

Together with the Tactical Tracker Training School, I am a direct partner of the Lone Guardian. More posts, activities and a summit in 2026 will therefore follow. I feel grateful to be a part of this and contribute. Many thanks to Kim and Shawn Walker, I feel very much at home!