5. Pay Attention While Driving
All officers, whether serving on campuses or in our towns and cities, deal with significant distractions in our cruisers. There are radio calls for service at the end of 12-hour shifts when we are tired. We must make radio transmissions while we respond to high-risk calls and we are driving at high speeds with adrenalin dumping into our systems; and data must be entered into our MDTs.
How many of us do computer entry or text while we are driving? Many, I suspect. We enforce laws against texting while driving, and we are all quick to tell offenders that texting while driving makes us more likely to have an accident than if we were under the influence of alcohol. We must realize we are not superheroes, and texting or entering data on a computer while driving puts us at risk, not to mention setting a bad example.
6. Wear Your Seatbelt
A final thought on the dangers lurking in our cruisers: wear your seatbelt! Officers sometimes use the following excuses: they impede quick exit from cruisers and make it difficult to draw a weapon, for instance. However, statistics from numerous studies provide a different story. There are effective means of mitigating complaints against seatbelts, and the bottom line is that greater use of seatbelts will save officers’ lives.
7. Maintain Your Mental Health
There is one frequent cause of law enforcement deaths that is not always captured on the Memorial Fund’s monument: officer suicide. In a recent study I read, the following scary facts were presented: (1) Everyday, somewhere in America, a law enforcement officer dies by suicide; (2) it is estimated that three times as many officers die from suicide than from line-of-duty deaths; and (3) officers of the law are twice as likely to put a gun to their heads as to be killed by someone else.
This is not the place to engage in an extensive discussion of law enforcement officer suicide, but the reader is advised to look into the subject at www.suicidology.org; www.psf.org (Police Suicide Foundation); www.policesuicideprevention.com; and www.copsalive.com. These sites describe the motivations and realities behind cop suicides, and might just help us keep a brother or sister alive.
Protect Yourself While Protecting Others
This article started as a discussion of campus police line-of-duty deaths and morphed into something a little broader: a discussion about threats to officer safety for all who wear a badge. The essential point we must always bear in mind is that law enforcement, no matter where the officer serves, is dangerous and requires constant vigilance and the maintenance of officers’ skills. The dangers and admonitions discussed above pertain to all law enforcement officers, whether sworn officers with arrest powers or unsworn security personnel. Our campuses can be dangerous places, and we owe it to those we serve, our fellow officers, ourselves and our families to be always on top of our game.
Lt. John M. Weinstein is the commander of Safety District III of the Northern Virginia Community College Police Department. He can be reached at [email protected].
