Step outside of the patrol car in a thunderstorm without a raincoat and you're gonna get wet. Your lack of proper planning or preparations caused your exposure to the elements. Like freezing on a winter's night because you didn't dress properly; being in the dark because your only flashlight died; dehydrating on a hot summer tour of duty because you didn't drink enough water - one action or lack of action affected the outcome.

Cause and effect also known as causality examines the relationship between one event (the cause) with a second event (the effect) as a resulting consequence.

You didn't make it thunderstorm by not wearing the proper rain garb. Your dying flashlight didn't make the warehouse dark. Your failure to properly equip and prepare caused you to be wet and in the dark. Being rain soaked is a mild consequence compared to more severe impacts of lack of planning and prepping on your part. Here are some more serious effects and their causes:

• Revolving your game plan around non-violent cooperative suspects and confronting a hyper-violent suspect intent on your demise
• Not wearing body armor and getting shot in the torso
• Failure to properly search a suspect and being attacked with a concealed knife or gun
• Placing all faith in ___________ (fill in the blank with your favorite less-lethal tool) and not having a Plan B when it fails
• Driving too fast and too recklessly to a call, losing control and colliding with a tree
• Walking up to the driver's side of every car stopped and getting ambushed by a suspect
• Lack of competency with your duty pistol and missing the suspect that's trying to kill you
• Not following policy and procedures and being disciplined
• Not using cover and being caught out in the open in a gunfight
• Limited skills on your part while confronting a suspect who's skilled and practiced
• Complacency - being surprised
• Winging an enforcement operation instead of planning and things suddenly go south
• Believing you're special and being totally shocked to find out you're not
• Thinking it can't happen to you and finding out the hard way that it can and is right now

The list goes on but the premise that your: lack of training and practice, failing to carry or wear the right equipment, exercising poor tactics, driving too damn fast, not paying attention, violating policy, and thinking it can’t or won’t happen to you - can result in injury or death to you, other LEO’s or innocent citizens - all cause and effect of your own actions.