Occupational Hazards: How the Job of Policing Affects Health and Well-being of Police Officers

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By Darrel ste.. Leonard Matai',

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Two agencies within the U.S. Department of Justice have formed a partnership to address the major increase in deaths of iaw enforcement officers in the line of duty from 2009 to 2011 (NLEOMF, 2011). U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder requested the initiative that resulted in the July 2011 partnership of the Community Oriented Policing Senrices (COPS) and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA). Although deaths decreased in 2012, police agencies face several important, long-standing issues in improving officer safety and Wellness.

Whüe the effort initially focused on

line-of-duty deaths of law enforcement

officers, it quickly became clear that

improving officer safety and reducing the

costs associated with injuries was going

to require a broader approach. Of increas-

ingly greater concern was the huge and

often underreported cost to local govern-

ment from officer injuries and illnesses.

Injured-on-duty (IOD) costs are a

problem for all police agencies, regardless

of size. In smaller agencies, however,

the costs can be financially devastating.

There are approximately 18,000 police

agencies in the United States. Of these,

approximately 49 percent have nine or

fewer officers, 5 percent have between

10 and 24 officers, and the remaining 46

percent of these agencies have 25 or more

officers (Bureau of Justice Statistics).

A good number of ICMA members

manage communities with smaller police

forces. For the vast majority of local

police agencies, a loss of one or two of-

ficers—even for a relatively short t e r m -

can dramatically increase costs because

of the necessity to pay overtime, which is

generated by the need to cover minimum

staffing requirements. In a 20-officer

department, covering two vacant posi-

tions through overtime adds 15 percent to

personnel costs.

BJA and COPS created the Officer

Safety and Wellness (OSW) Group

to examine safety issues and provide

information to the law enforcement

field that could help reduce injuries and

deaths. OSW identified 16 focus areas to

guide work in meetings held in July and

September 2011. Since that time, OSW

has addressed six of these priorities:

• Officer gunfire injuries.

• Officer deaths.

• Vehicle operation.

• Risk management.

• Education and training.

• Leadership's role in developing a

culture of safety.

This article discusses OSW meet-

ing topics along with some of the key

recommendations that resulted from

these deliberations.

Officer Gunfire and Deaths For the first time in more than a decade,

the number of officers killed in the line

of duty from firearms increased in 2011

for the third consecutive year (NELOMF,

2011. See Figure 1.) The intentional

kiUing of a police officer has enormous

impacts on the community, the police

agency, and officers' families. While any

loss of life to violence is tragic, the situ-

ation in which officers who lose their

lives while protecting and serving their

community is particularly devastating.

It is a stark reminder to all officers of

their vulnerability.

OSW engaged in a day of intense

discussions on gunfire deaths and

injuries, including a session on the

research—what we know and don't

know—presented by Professor Robert

Kaminski from the Department of

Criminology and Criminal Justice,

University of South Carolina. Police Chief

Jane Castor, Tampa, Florida, also shared

her experiences in the shooting deaths

of two officers on a traffic stop and the

four-day search for the suspect.

Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART)

Deputy Chief Benson Fairow, formerly

with the Oakland, California, police

department, described the events of

March 21, 2009, when a lone gunman

on a traffic stop killed two Oakland

icma.org/pm MARCH 2013 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT 9

FIGURE 1: Law Enforcement Officer Fatalities.

Total Fatalities

Gunfire

Traffic Incidents

Otiier Causes

2011

173

68

64

41

2010

152

59

70

23

2009

122

49

52

21

% Change 2009-2011

+42

+39

+23

+95

Source: National Law Enforcement Memoriai Fund.

officers. The same gunman also shot and

killed two other officers when they were

searching an apartment for the suspect.

Senior Fellow James "Chips"

Stewart from the CNA Corporafion had

conducted independent reviews of the

incidents in Tampa and Oakland as well

as one that occurred in Baltimore. He

also shared lessons learned from the

three cases.

Based on the research, case studies,

background reading, individual exper-

tise, and discussions, here is a summary

of some of the OSW Group observations

and recommendations:

• A broader, more encompassing

database should be developed that

includes line-of-duty deaths and as-

saults, demographics on offenders and

officers, information on the types of

calls that result in deaths and assaults,

and lessons learned from incidents.

• Safety products should be evaluated to

determine effectiveness.

• Police agencies should have current

policies on:

• Incident command.

• Officer deaths (notifications,

family liaison, funeral planning).

• Critical incident stress debriefing.

• Safety equipment (vests,

seat belts).

• Clear use of force and reporting

directives.

• Communications (external

and internal).

• Memorandums of understanding

with neighboring jurisdictions.

• Training in critical thinking and deci-

sion making would improve officers'

ability to work through these situations.

• A process should be created to

routinely inform officers across the

CREATING A SAFETY CULTURE • Commitment to a safety culture

at all levels.

• Safety and health are treated

I as an investment, not a cost.

• Safety and health are part of

continuous improvement.

• Training and information are

I provided for everyone.

• A system for workplace

analysis and hazard prevention

and control is in place.

• The environment in which

people work is blame-free.

• The organization celebrates

successes.

- JANE ARDERN, MANAGER, WORKSAFE, AUSTRALIA DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, WEST PERTH, AUSTRALIA

country of officer gunfire death and

injury situations that provides officers'

insight into the incidents and any

lessons learned.

Departments should consider alterna-

tives to the way traffic stops are con-

ducted. Maryland State Police troopers

often approach a vehicle they have

stopped on the passenger side. The

driver does not expect it, the trooper is

taken out of the stream of traffic, and

the view of the driver is better.

A communications strategy should be

developed. Effective communications

is even more difficult in high-stress

and high-profile events. Roles, respon-

sibilities, and tactics should be defined

in advance.

• Departments should develop a process

for objective after-acfion review of

these incidents and take steps to cor-

rect any problems that are identified.

Vehicle Operation Deaths and injuries from traffic crashes

have been a problem for the police for

some years. Officers must drive in all

kinds of conditions and are expected to

be able to perform various tasks at the

time their vehicle is in motion.

While on patrol, they must be

mindful of the radio, computers,

telephones, license plate readers,

and radar at the same time they are

observing their surroundings. Under

the conditions in which they drive,

one can expect crashes will occur.

Yet, some officers are rarely involved

in crashes while others seem to have

great difficulty avoiding them.

OSW heard from a panel of

experts on three different aspects of

vehicle operations. The first presentation

focused on a comprehensive research

initiative of the California Commission

on Peace Officers Standards and Training

(CalPOST). Although there has not

been much research on officer-involved

crashes, a general profile of the problem

has emerged:

• Primary vicfim: male, ages mid 20s to

mid 30s (Young Noh, 2011).

• Contributing behaviors: unsafe speed,

red light/stop sign violafions, im-

proper turning (Young Noh, 2011).

• Officers with in-service driving simula-

tor and/or behind-the-wheel training

had lower crash rates than officers

without (CalPOST, 2009).

• Majority of injuries and fatalities

suffered in officer-involved colli-

sions were members of the public:

50 percent of serious injuries and 83

percent of fatalities, including both

suspect and bystanders (Rix, Walker,

and Brown, 1997).

The second presentafion was a case

study from the Las Vegas Metropolitan

(Nevada) Police Department (LVMPD).

In a six-month period. May to November

1 O PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | MARCH 2013 ¡cma.org/pm

"The Fairfax County Police Department's Safety Officer Program is committed to the safety and Wellness for all members of the agency. Our goal is to ensure a culture of safety by providing the necessary guid- ance and support to help mitigate risk and prevent accidents from occurring." - SAFETY OFFICER PROGRAM, FAIRFAX COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT, FAIRFAX COUNTY, VIRGINIA

2009, LVMPD experienced the tragic loss

of three officers in vehicle crashes.

TWo of the officers were not wearing

safety belts, and one was thrown from the

car. In two cases, emergency equipment

was not in operation despite the vehicles

travelling well above the speed limit.

LVMPD sought to develop a better

understanding of the problem. The

department partnered with an advertis-

ing agency, participated in ride-a-longs,

and surveyed officers to gain insight into

their habits and concerns.

It also looked to the private sector

with a visit to United Parcel Service,

where employees receive a safe driving

message every day. LVMPD's reviews led

to several policy changes launched dur-

ing a meeting of all of the department's

command-level personnel.

Changes included emergency vehicle

operations course (EVOC) training every

year for the first three years and every

other year after that, with online training

annually. Officers who fail to pass the

training are not permitted to drive.

An emphasis has also been placed

on wearing seat belts; a cap of 20

miles per hour over the posted speed

limit has been established when driving

under emergency conditions other than

pursuits; and the Accident Review Board

was given more authority and expected

to apply progressive discipline in cases

where the officer is at fault.

The final presentation reported on

research at Mississippi State University

funded by the National Institute of Jus-

tice that used driving simulators to show

the impact of distractions created by

OSW GROUP COMPOSITION PARTICIPANTS IN THE Officer Safety and Wellness (OSW) Group include a core of 35 repre- sentatives who represent police associations and unions, federal government agencies, academics, local government organizations, and law enforcement agencies, including lOMA. The core group is supplemented at each meeting with subject-matter experts on the topic under discussion.

equipment in the patrol car that officers

have to use while driving.

OSW Group members heard from

Teena Garrison, professor. Center for Ad-

vanced Vehicular Systems at Mississippi

State University, who, along with col-

leagues, is studying the impact of in-car

communications devices on patrol officer

performance. Preliminary results indicate

that when the use of coded language is

paired with the use of a display-echoing

communication with dispatch, or when

natural language is used without such a

display, accuracy on a test of situation

awareness was similar to a control condi-

tion without distraction. This provides

evidence that police departments should

be made more aware of how certain

technologies and practices interact.

The National Institute of Justice sup-

ports several projects aimed at under-

standing the circumstances under which

officers drive and become involved in

vehicle crashes, including one being

conducted by the RAND Corporation

on the causes of injuries and deaths.

Others include University of South

Carolina researchers, who are working

on evidence-based solutions to officer-

involved crashes; and a project by the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology,

which is looking at mitigating and warn-

ing of traffic threats to police stopped

along the roadside.

Risi( iVIanagement Risk management programs have been

a part of local govemment organizafions

for years. Their purpose is to minimize

organizational exposure to risk, including

employee injuries. Although local govern-

ments generally have risk management

programs that work with police, relatively

few large police agencies have their own.

In a 2005 telephone survey of police

agencies, author Carol Archbold, profes-

sor. Department of Criminal Justice

and Political Science at North Dakota

State University, learned that agencies

identified risk management as a tool to

control liability within their organiza-

tions (Archbold, 2005).

Risk management was discussed at

two OSW meetings. In the first discus-

sion, Toronto, Canada's police service

risk management program was presented

for consideration.

That city's risk management unit is a

part of the professional standards function

within the "corporate command" area

of the agency. The unit addresses risk

management from these perspectives:

• Risk of officer.

• Risk of public/to public.

• Risk to organization.

• Damage to organization.

• Civil suits.

In the second risk management

discussion. Harvard Kennedy School

Professor Malcolm Sparrow was asked to

share his thinking about and experience

in dealing with harm reduction and risk

management. In the introduction of his

most recent book The Character of Harms:

1 2 PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | MARCH 2013 icma.org/pm

Operational Challenges in Control, Spar-

row urges the regulatory community to

"pick important problems and fix them"

(Sparrow, 2008). He goes on to say:

"However simple that sounds, it

turns out that organizing around care-

fully selected and important pieces of

a risk—rather than around traditional

programmatic or functional tasks, or

around core-high-volume operational pro-

cesses—is extraordinarily hard to do. Even

if they manage to do it once for something

special, many organizations have no place

for such conduct within their routine

operations," (Sparrow, 2008).

Sparrow discussed the design choices

in risk management: how to (a) define,

(b) divide, (c) distribute, and (d) carry

out the work of controlling harms, and

he also presented choices that can be

used to help control and reduce harm

from officer injuries and death.

Leadership's Roie in Creating a Culture of Safety In every one of the OSW Group discus-

sions, the issue of law enforcement

culture came up as everyone worked to

identify ways of reducing officer deaths

and injuries. There are many variations

on the definition of organizational

culture, but at its simplest form it is

"how things are done around here"

(Deal and Kennedy, 1982). How things

are done reflects a complex set of norms

and values in the organization that may

have developed over the years.

In policing, there is a tendency to

accept injuries as part of the risk of the

job and a reluctance to do the type of

analysis required to learn from mistakes.

A great many things influence culture,

but it is clear the chief executive officer

plays a critically important role in chang-

ing culture.

The Fairfax County, Virginia, and the

Baca Raton, Florida, police departments

are good examples of agencies that have

made a strong effort at creating a culture

of safety within their organizations. Both

have a broad range of programs aimed at

promoting safety and fitness.

Fairfax County, Virginia, Police Chief

David Rohrer established a full-time

officer safety position with significant

authority that is supported by part-time

safety officers in each of its divisions.

The overall success of the department's

emphasis on safety was apparent by the

end of FY2010.

According to the county division

of risk management, the number of

police department worker's compensa-

tion claims decreased 29 percent from

FY2009 to FY2010. Vehicle collision

claims dropped over the same period by

18 percent. The total number of safety-

related claims in FY2010 dropped 23.7

percent from FY09. The numbers have

been maintained at a favorable level

since then (Kapinos, 2012).

A police department's workforce

and those who represent it also heavily

influence organizational culture. Detective

Bob Cherry is a 20-year veteran of the

Baltimore Police Department and presi-

dent of the Baltimore City Fraternal Order

of Police Lodge 3. He has played a key

role in working with department manage-

ment to reduce officer-involved vehicle

crashes and pass such legislation as the

"move over" law, a law that went into

effect on October 1, 2010, and requires

motorists to change lanes when they are

approaching an emergency vehicle with

lights on that is stopped on the side of

the road. Cherry argues that the police

need a sustained and consistent educa-

tional campaign aimed at safety on both

a national and agency level.

Captain Adrienne Quigley of the

Arlington County, Virginia, Police

Department suggests officer safety issues

are a bigger problem than many realize.

She points to these statistics:

• Based on established incidence rates,

law enforcement officers sustain

approximately 106,950 injuries per year,

only 15,000 to 16,000 of which are

attributable to assault (U.S. Department

of Labor, 2011).

CASE STUDY: MUNICIPAL POOLING AUTHORITY, WALNUT CREEK, CALIFORNIA SITUATION: The Municipal Pooling Authority, located in Walnut Creek, California, provides risk management services to 14 police departments and 20 local governments mostly located in Contra Costa County, California. Prior to working with Future Industrial Technologies, Inc. (F.l.T), the police depart- ments were experiencing a rising number of injuries resulting in a substantial trend of increasing workers' compensation costs.

SOLUTION: F.l.T. recommended the Backsafe® program customized for law enforcement, with both classroom training and an obstacle course involving the use of an actual police car in a police station setting. |

RESULTS: In the two complete fiscal years subsequent to the program, a reduction in the lift, push, and pull type of injuries by 60 percent has been documented and a reduction in the cost of those injuries by approximately 90 percent. The police agencies believe that the effort to address police injuries has produced some synergistic benefits, with respect to the entire police workers' compensation program.

The overall cost of police injuries after the implementation of the program decreased from $3.5 million per year to $1 million per year over a two-year period of time, representing a 70 percent decrease.

I Source: Future Industrial Technologies, Inc. I

icma.org/pm MARCH 2013 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT 1 3

• A law enforcement officer who is not fit

and has an additional risk factor is 6.6

times more likely to develop coronary

heart disease (Collingwood et al, 1998).

• Some 20 percent of the average law

enforcement agency's workforce is

responsible for 80 percent of the costs

(Collingwood et al, 1998).

• Average cost of an in-service heart

attack is between $400,000 and

$700,000 (Smith and Tooker, 2005).

• For every $1 invested in a fitness and

Wellness program, the return ranges

from $2 to $5 in the form of reduced

injuries, lost time, and so on (Tooker

and Cashwell, 2008).

Ouigley recommends that managers

take these actions:

• Make injury mitigation a priority.

• Adopt and enforce policies that keep

officers safe, including foot pursuits, seat-

belt policies, and fatigue monitoring.

• Provide officers with equipment and

training to reduce injuries.

• Recognize that a true culture of safety

extends to off duty.

• Identify potential pitfalls and work to

eliminate them.

Establishing a Culture of Safety Communities have a risk management

program in place. Oftentimes, however,

the police department does not receive

the same scrutiny that the public works

department, for example, receives.

Far too often police officer injuries are

accepted as just part of a dangerous job.

In reality, a meaningful risk manage-

ment program in police departments can

reduce injuries and associated costs.

Accomplishing this will require

leadership not only from the police chief

but from the local government chief

administrator as well. Establishing a

culture of safety should be one of the

primary goals of any department head

and an area that appointed administra-

tors and elected officials must insist be a

critical performance measure.

The COPS/BJA Officer Safety and

Wellness Group has made an important

contribution to increasing awareness

of and focus on reducing deaths and

injuries through its discussions and

the dissemination of information to

the field. Its work will continue over

the next couple of years as the group

addresses such issues as physical and

psychological health.

OSW will also revisit the topics of

vehicle operation and gunfire deaths

and injuries so they may be explored in

greater depth with a view toward

creating a strong agency and industry-

based culture of safety. All OSW

REFERENCES

Archbold, Carol A. 2005. "Managing the bottom line: risk management in policing," Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, Vol. 28, Issue: 1, pp.30-48. http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals. htm?articleid=1464666

Ardern, Jane (2012). Creating a Safety Culture. WorkSafe, Australia Department of Commerce. http://www.com merce.wa.gov.au/Vi/orksafe/PDF/ Forums/safety_culture-Jane_.pdf

Bureau cf Justice Statistics, Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies, 2008. http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/index. cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=2216

California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training. 2009. Driver Training Study Volume 1. http://lib.posf.ca.gcv/ Publicafions/d.pdf

Collingwood, Thomas R. et al. 1998. "Why Officers Need to Be Fif." Fit Force Administrators Guide. Champaign, Illinois: Human Kinetics.

Deal, Terranoe and Kennedy, Allan. 1982. Corporate Cultures. Reading, MA: Addison- Wesley.

Fairfax County Police Department. 2010. Annual Report. Fairfax County Police Department, hffp:// www.fairfaxcounty.gov/pclice/inside-fcpd/pdf/ ar_2010_final_9_9_11 .pdf

Fairfax County Police Department 2012. Safety Officer Program SOP • 10-038. Fairfax County Police Department.

Future Indusfrial Technologies, Inc. (F.I.T). Case Sfudy: Municipal Pooling Authority of Walnut Creek, CA. http://www.backsafe.ccm/newsroom/ pdfs/walnut_creek_pdf.pdf

meeting summary reports are available

on the COPS Office OSW Group website

at www.cops.usdoj.gov/Default.

asp?Item. Rt/l

DARREL STEPHENS, a former police chief, is executive director. Major

^ ' ' ' ^ ^ ^ ° ' ' ' ^ ^ Chiefs Association, Charlotte,

North Carolina (sfephens@majorcifieschiefs. com). LEONARD MATARESE, ICMA CM, IPMA-CP, is director, research and projecf development, ICMA Center for Public Safety Management, Washington, D.C. (Imatarese® icma.org).

Kapinos, John 2012. Personnel communioafion with John Kapinos, Fairfax County Police sfrafegic planner on July 6.

Nafional Institute of Justice (NU). 2012. Officer Safety Projects. hftp://www.nij.gov/nij/topics/ law-enforcement/officer-safety/projecfs.hfm

Nafional Law Enforcemenf Officers Memorial Fund. 2011. Law Enforcement Officer Deaths: Preliminary 2011 Report. Washington, D.C. hftp://www.nleomf.org/assefs/pdfs/reports/2011 • EOY-Report.pdf

Rix, Bernard, Walker, Derek and Brown, Rick. 1997. /I Study of Deaths and Serious Injuries Resulting from Police Vehicle Accidents. British Home Office Police Research Group.

Smifh, J. E. Jr. and Tooker, G.Gregory. 2005. "Healfh and Fitness in Law Enforcement: A Voluntary Model Program Response to a Critical Issue." CALEA Update, no. 87. htfp://www.calea. org/calea-updafe-magazine/issue/87

Sparrow, Malcolm. 2008. The Character of Harms: Operational Challenges in Control. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Tooker, G. Gregory and Cashwell, David D. 2008. "Revisiting fhe Fitness and Health in Law Enforcement Model Program," CALEA Update, no. 96. htfp://www.calea.org/calea-updafe- magazine/issue-96/revisifing-fitness-health-law- enforcemenf-model-program

United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, TED: The Editors Desk (March 3, 2011 ) Retrieved July 13, 2011 from hftp://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2011 / ted_20110303_data.htm

Young Noh, Eun. 2011. Characteristics of Law Enforcement Officers' Fatalities in Motor Vehicle Crashes. NHTSA Technical Report. htfp://www- nrd.nhfsa.dof.gov/Pubs/811411 .pdf

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