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Archive for Officer Safety

In Car Police Cameras

by Richard

May 8th, 2013

In car police cameras have radically altered our understanding of officer safety. In the past two decades, the videos coming from squad cars have made a huge impact on how instructors present training in the academy and have made lasting impressions on the psyche of many a rookie and seasoned cop.

In Car Police Cameras

Before the widespread use of video cameras in police cars, trainers had to rely on the involved officers to relay the events. Unfortunately, not all of the officers survived the confrontations to tell what happened. Those law enforcement officers who were successful still suffered from perceptual narrowing and other effects of the incident, which prevented them from always giving a clear picture of the incident.

As I have mentioned in other articles, the dash cam video of South Carolina State Trooper Mark Coates murder made a significant impact on how I looked at law enforcement, and how I handled myself on the road. Likewise, videos showing the murders of Nacogdoches County (TX) Constable Darrell Lunsford and Laurens County (GA) Deputy Sheriff Kyle Dinkheller also changed me forever. These videos, and many more, changed how many trainers taught traffic stops and the use of force.

Categories Officer Safety, Technology, Traffic Stops
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KCPD Badge Placement Study 2011-2012

by Aaron

March 8th, 2013

In the last few months I was made aware of an incredibly important study conducted by the Firearms Section of the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department. The results of that study should have far-reaching implications for any officer who engages in enforcement action during an undercover assignment or while off-duty in plain clothes.

The Background for Testing

Unfortunately there are several tragic cases in the history of law enforcement where a responding on-duty officer mistakes an undercover or off-duty officer for an armed subject and shoots the other officer. The National Law Enforcement Memorial has recorded over 100 undercover officers killed in the line of duty, some of whom were unintentionally killed by other officers. This does not take into account probably hundreds of more officers that have been wounded by friendly fire, or “blue on blue”.

A recent example was when undercover Oakland, CA police officer William Wilkins had cornered a suspect in a stolen vehicle and had him at gun point. Two rookie patrol officers arrived on scene and mistakenly shot Officer Wilkins killing him.

Categories Firearms Training, Off Duty Concerns, Officer Safety
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Dodging Bullets

by Richard

November 28th, 2012

Police Pointing gun thin

In recent weeks, the officers in my department have avoided very dangerous situations through sheer luck.

In one case, a relatively minor hit and run became a bit more serious when the at-fault driver fled from officers in a vehicle. Policy prohibited a pursuit in these circumstances, and officers followed up later in the shift. Only after approaching the suspect’s residence did they discover the suspect was inside and armed with at least a rifle, shotgun and pistol.

It seems the suspect, a combat veteran with no known prior criminal history, had intended on ambushing officers as they came up to his home. Without getting into the specifics, luck or the protection of divine providence prevented this from turning into a bloodbath.

Categories Officer Safety
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Dismal Toll of Police Stress

by Force Science Institute

November 22nd, 2012

“Policing,” writes Dr. John Violanti, one of the leading researchers of law enforcement stress, “is psychologically stressful work filled with danger, high demands, ambiguity in encounters, human misery, and exposure to death.”

And that may be the least of its dark side.

“Law enforcement is one of a number of often stressful professions that has attracted the interest of researchers who are compelled to study the stressors involved in a particular line of work and their impact on those engaged in the profession,” says Dr. Bill Lewinski, Executive Director of the Force Science Institute. “For a significant number of cops, the worst part of the job will likely be its long-term negative impact on personal health and wellbeing, ranging from heart problems to cancer to suicide as identified in recent research.”

Categories Officer Safety
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When You Don’t See What’s Visible

by Force Science Institute

November 15th, 2012

Experiments mirroring a real-world case that resulted in an officer going to prison for perjury have confirmed that a trick of the mind called inattentional blindness–the failure to see something important that is clearly within your field of view–can occur under stressful circumstances on the street.

The officer’s conviction was described in detail in a book called The Invisible Gorilla, which Force Science News reviewed in Transmission #160 [10/8/10. Click here to read it]. He’d been in foot pursuit of a shooting suspect at 0200 in Boston and had run past three fellow officers who were brutally beating a black male. In a public furor that arose over the beating, the officer insisted he didn’t see the incident even though he ran right past it.

Categories Officer Safety
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Feeling Tired Isn’t the Only Bad Result of Too Few Zzzzzzzzs

by Force Science Institute

October 25th, 2012

Negative evidence about sleep deprivation continues to pile up. Consider these new research findings:

• University of Iowa researchers report that if you’re averaging less than six hours sleep a night, you’re more susceptible to chronic fatigue and high-risk health problems, including obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Studying 85 male officers from three police agencies in eastern Iowa, they found that working evening or night shifts leaves you 14 times less likely to get restful sleep and more likely to draw back-to-back shifts, worsening your sleep deficit.

The study team urges new approaches to “break the cascade of poor sleep for police officers” in the interest of their personal health and public safety. Among suggestions: change the time of early-morning court appearances for night-shift officers to better assure adequate rest.

Categories Officer Safety
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