The IACP Reducing Officer Injuries Final Report

The International Association of Chiefs of Police, (IACP) has released the final report of their police officer line-of-duty injuries study. Eighteen agencies from around the country contributed their data to the study. The Chaska and Duluth police departments, as well as the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office and the Minnesota State Patrol, participated in the project.

The Monetary Impact
The one year of data reported 1,295 officer injuries that resulted in 5,938 work days missed. Those days totaled $1,211,352 in lost time plus another $1,817,028 in overtime for cover assignments. If you are doing the math, that is more than $3 million dollars—and it does not include the cost of medical treatments and rehab.

The Findings
First, the report shows the value of closely tracking and investigating officer injuries. Patterns and trends were spotted as the data was analyzed. Here are a few observations:

• Findings showed that certain groups of officers were more likely to experience injuries, including officers in the first five years on the job and officers that were overweight.
   
• Offenders with prior contact with law enforcement caused more severe injuries to officers than those with no prior contact.
   
• Police encounters with suspects under the influence of drugs or alcohol resulted in more severe officer injuries.
   
• Officer training efforts in the areas of arrest procedure, tactics, and use of force resulted in fewer officer injuries.
   
• The findings showed the hard numbers for seat belt use, squad car speed, and officer fitness programs.

Page 10 of the report begins to address the issue of training injuries. The study showed that the use of a “safety lecture” before training decreased those injuries by 41%. That finding is consistent with the experience of the LMCIT Training Safety Officer (TSO) program, which uses a “safety briefing” prior to training.

The report also validates much of the anecdotal knowledge about line-of-duty injuries and is consistent with LMCIT data. The report illustrates how thorough accident investigation and tracking can aid risk management efforts and calls for “instilling a culture of safety” across police agencies. I encourage you to read the entire study. It can be found online at:  http://www.theiacp.org/portals/0/pdfs/IACP_ROI_Final_Report.pdf

Remember:

                                            Responder Safety = Public Safety



Up next…Change, Change, Change: From Retirements to Tactics

In the meantime, stay safe and be careful.



Rob

A Good Idea From Kentucky

The wristband provides immediate visual communication.

Most patrol officers have at least one story about drawing their weapon on a suspect, only to find out the suspect was a police officer working in “plain clothes.” These types of incidents occur fast, and sometimes—when the plain clothes officer is holding their gun—the results have been deadly.

In 1993, a plain clothes police officer in Kentucky was mistakenly shot by a uniformed officer during a foot chase. That incident led to a complete review of all plain clothes officer responses, and to officers carrying a new piece of police equipment.

The wristband is worn on the officer's gun hand (shown here being
tested at the SCALE Regional Training Center in Scott County).

That new piece of police equipment is a bright green reflective wristband that officers “slap” on to their gun hand when they want to be identified as a police officer. The band is 3 inches wide and has the word POLICE lettered on it. You can’t miss it. It is stored as a coil that quickly curls around an officer’s wrist, shirt, or jacket and stays there. There are no snaps or Velcro, and the wristband can be put on in less than a second. Officers keep the band on the gear shift lever of their car when not in use.

The wristband forms a coil when not in use.

In addition to receiving the wristband, all Kentucky officers receive training on a common protocol to be followed when a plain clothes or off-duty officer is going to be making an arrest and may be interacting with uniform officers.

The Kentucky program of common training and the highly visible wrist band has been successful. I think it has merit for the Minnesota law enforcement community as well. Let me know your thoughts. I can be reached at (651) 281-1238 or rboe@lmc.org.

Remember:
                    
                 Responder Safety = Public Safety



Up next…More details on the IACP Reducing Officer Injuries Final Report

In the meantime, stay safe and be careful.



Rob

The Live Burn, Part 2: The Procedure

Firefighters head into the house for the pre-burn “walk-through”

During EMS, fire, and police training, responders frequently hear the phrase that they need to “train like they fight because they will fight like they train.” The firefighter live burn training in Richfield exemplified that phrase as the firefighters followed their normal procedures for on-scene operations and for training safety. There were no shortcuts.

They followed the NFPA training standard #1403 protocol, and firefighters walked through the structure before the live burning started. Crews were staged through the positions of the back-up team and Rapid Intervention Team (RIT) assignments in advance of working their way up to be the next to go inside. It went like clockwork, and they used baseball terms to indicate which crew was “on deck” and who was “up.”

When a crew was ready to attack the fire, two firefighters would “mask up,” take a line (hose) near to the door, wait for the engine company’s officer to conduct a 360-degree walk around the house, and then broadcast a “size up” of the scene on the radio. They were simulating their exact protocol at real fires even though this was training. The company officer would then join the crew, and they would enter the house to extinguish the fire.

The status board indicates the location of each crew

When the crew came out, there was a short debriefing as the instructors inside rekindled the fires before signaling to the on-deck crew that they were up. The firefighters got at least two entries into the house, and many got three as the outbound crew would rejoin the rotation. It was very methodical and amazingly quiet, except for sound of the engine pumping water from a hydrant to the firefighters inside.

What was not visible was the planning and coordination to make all of this happen at such a high level. The details were covered from coordinating a multi-day training session to arranging for a Hennepin County Medical Center paramedic ambulance to be standing by two houses down the block.

The fire department worked with the city and developed a training plan that allowed 275 firefighters to receive live burn training in real houses. It was a collaboration of people training on a standardized plan that will pay dividends long into the future. Congratulations to the Richfield Fire Department and Deputy Chief Mike Dobesh for a job well done.


Remember:

                                                       Responder Safety = Public Safety



Up next…An interesting idea from Kentucky

In the meantime, stay safe and be careful.



Rob