Control Measures

Gordon Graham here and thanks again for taking the time to visit my little corner of this great website – and I sincerely hope that all is going well for you and your family – and again thanks for your great work. There is not a day that goes by that I am not grateful to you for all your great work in better protecting America and Americans – and oddly enough that is the focus on my thinking in this article.

As I prepare this piece on October 31 (in between handing out candy to the kids coming to the door – and my two kids are well past that age but I fondly remember those days and the great line “Dad, do you have to wear the high-visibility vest?”) I and looking at some sites on line and note that 70 firefighters have died in the line of duty nationally so far this year. Last year the total was 93 and it appears that you could reduce the number of LODD’s significantly this year. And of course that reduction in LODD’s is good news!

Sadly, things are not that good on the Law Enforcement side of the aisle. Last year American law enforcement lost 128 officers in LODD events – and this year the number is already higher than last year at 139 – and this could end up terrible with somewhere around 160 officers dying LODD in 2010.

You know I am a big fan of “risk management” – and a quick definition is “identify and evaluate risks and then create control measures to address those risks” – and I guess I am not the only one concerned with this issue because the good people at Law Officer Magazine (www.lawofficer.com) have started a program appropriately called “Below 100”.

Their goal is to reduce the LODD total to “Below 100” – and I believe it can be done. If you are into the whole number thing, that would require a dramatic drop from 160 to something less than 100 – and when I tell people in law enforcement about this goal – I am often told that a reduction of that magnitude is impossible.

Before you agree with that sentiment, I will give you another number to ponder – 269! And that does not represent Tiger Woods’ score at the recent golf tournament – nor does it represent how many millions he paid his ex-wife (I understand that number was much higher) for his dalliances.

I joined the law enforcement world in 1973 and that year there were 269 LODD events in police work around America. Somehow that number was reduced substantially to 128 in 2009. And if you have been reading the paper at all for the last decade or so, aggravated assaults against law enforcement personnel are up – yet the tally for LODD is down. How could this happen?

Control Measures! Go back to the definition from earlier in this piece. You must “identify and evaluate risks and then create control measures to address those risks”. And someone must have been thinking this way 37 years ago – because three control measures have made a huge difference.

These control measures are three in number. I will give you the first two quickly, but I will hold off on the third one as this is the focus of my thoughts in this writing.

1. Better Training

2. Better Equipment

Let me address the training issue first. Obviously, cops are better trained today. If you have nothing to do tonight, google “The Newhall Incident” – and learn about the four CHP officers who were murdered in 1970 on Interstate 5 in Southern California.

You can read the piece as well as I can tell you the story, but the training those officers received in firearms was pretty minimal – and even worse it created a very bad habit that ended up being linked to the deaths of these officers.

This “failure to adequately train” was pretty commonplace around America then – and I could give you examples from each of the fifty states similar to what was going on in California. But we have improved the quality of the training – and that investment has paid off nicely.

The second issue – better equipment – has also benefited my profession. The protective vest has made a huge difference – and not to digress but if your fire department chooses to go this route (and more and more are) there is no need for an announcement to the public through the media about what you are doing. Please think this through – and go low key on this and give your people the vest and keep it a secret. I hope I don’t have to explain why to you.

There have been other improvements on the equipment side including: the computers that allow us to know that we are dealing with bad guys quicker, the better cars (airbags, better crashworthiness and better seatbelts–which apparently only work if you have it on – and that is an issue on your side of the fence also), and some other tech stuff.

But the big reason that deaths have dropped from 269 to 128 (and for any math majors in here that is better than a 50% reduction) is due to your work in ALS and BLS and all the other things you are doing with respect to pre-hospital care of injured officers, deputies and Troopers.

I regularly point this out to cops around America – and tell them that the next time they see a firefighter/paramedic/EMT – make sure you say thanks – but your efforts have really paid off in better protecting the women and men of law enforcement. So a sincere thanks is in order to each and all of you!

I am also a huge fan of “continuous improvement” – and that is my focus here today. More and more cops are starting to recognize the need for “self help” (particularly in rural areas) and taking care of personal wounds and those suffered by other cops prior to your arrival.

As I perused the boots at the recent International Association of Chiefs of Police in Orlando last week, I saw several that addressed this issue of “self help on field casualties” and while I am in league with this line of thinking – having the tool is of little or no value if you don’t know how to use it.

So I am asking for your help. I am telling cops around America to get this stuff – but having it in their pocket is not the full answer. They need to know how to use it – quickly and correctly – to stem the flow of blood and treat the wound – prior to the arrival of the paramedics and other medical professionals.

For those of you who have a “sister agency” on the law enforcement side, I am asking you as the fire service professional to initiate the conversation with your cops regarding “taking care of yourself prior to our arrival” and give them some training – and not just once – regarding how to use these tools. I am hopeful that the “memory markers” you help create with your cops might be of some value to you and them.

I am forever grateful to the on duty firefighters at LA City who helped me out on June 18, 1981 when I had a major problem – and I know many other cops who have personally benefited from your assistance. But in this age of longer response times and less personnel – perhaps we need to revisit this issue.

Anyhow, that is all for now and again thanks for all you are doing.

Gordon Graham

Co-President, Lexipol