One very important concept.
What's
Important
Now?
Think about that for a minute while I tell you about the class I had the privilege of attending last night.
Two of KCPD's driving instructors offered to present the class 'Below 100' to our Friends & Family group. The class is a nationwide campaign to keep Line of Duty Deaths below 100 annually. That has not been achieved since 1944.
Ironically, an officer's worst enemy is not necessarily the bad guy anymore.
It's complacency.
Every day my husband walks out the door, I worry about some crazy with a gun or knife preventing him from walking back through it at the end of the night. When in fact, many line of duty deaths are preventable. And that his biggest enemy is speed and a pole or a tree.
Not wearing a seat belt.
I don't want to get tangled in my belt when I need to get out of my car in a hurry.
Not wearing a vest.
It's just an off-duty job.
Speeding.
I have to get there first.
We saw some horrific pictures of police vehicle crashes where the occupants didn't survive.
And were not wearing their seatbelts.
Why were they speeding and not wearing their seatbelts?
Going to a school shooting? Stop an armed robber? Capture a rapist? A serial killer? A kidnapper?
Nope.
One was late for work.
One was going to catch a shoplifter.
One was just a chronic speeder.
All of them left behind families.
A wife, children, parents.
Officers that had been shot, and fortunately survived, were asked at what point during that car stop/ped check/suspect interview did they reliaze they were going to be shot at.
Answer? After they'd been shot.
It all happens so fast, in a matter of seconds.
A lot of good your vest would do you if it was in the backseat/trunk/shelf at home.
Even at an off-duty job.
And aside from the risk to yourself if you are speeding, what about the innocent people you could injure. Or kill?
Like the two sisters, ages 18 and 13, killed in Illinois by a state trooper driving 126 mph while
sending a message on his computer, talking on his phone and on his radio. And he had been told minutes prior to the fatal crash that he was no longer needed at the scene of the accident he was responding to.
sending a message on his computer, talking on his phone and on his radio. And he had been told minutes prior to the fatal crash that he was no longer needed at the scene of the accident he was responding to.
Or the officer who struck and killed a 10 year old boy that was on his bike, crossing a highway, someplace he wasn't supposed to be, as most kids are, while driving 29 miles over the speed limit.
Or the officer currently in jail for 15 years because he was driving 100mph through an intersection to an accident he was no longer needed at, when a car turned in front of him. This caused him to swerve and strike one of his fellow officers, dragging his body and finally coming to a stop only when his car struck a pole, pinning and killing the officer.
If you are involved in an accident on your way to help a fellow officer or community member, and are in a wreck because of speeding or not clearing an intersection, you will not be of any help. You will divert more resources away from the initial needy party, thus causing a greater delay.
And that could be my husband. Or my best friend's husband. Or me. Or my child.
I don't claim to know what it's like to be in a police car when a call comes out. Or the real dangers my husband faces when he steps out the door.
I'm sharing this as a wife. As a mother.
As someone who knows that of the 39 auto-related and 27 gun-fire related LODD this year that if just one could have been prevented by simply slowing down, wearing a seatbelt, always wearing a vest, a wife wouldn't be widowed. A child fatherless. A family grieving. A department mourning.
Because I know every day that could be me.
Or my children.
My family.
My family.
My husband's coworkers.
And if it could have been prevented by a little vigilance, imagine the insult to injury.
The anger, bitterness and resentment.
WIN?
We all get complacent. I do it. My kids do it because they see me do it. My husband does it.
But if I tell my daughter every single time she walks out the door to drive safe, wear her seatbelt and pay attention to her surroundings, then I damn well better be setting the example myself.
And I don't just ask this of my husband, my children, but of all of you, too. Friends, law enforcement or not. Slow down. Wear your seatbelt. Be vigilant. Don't be complacent. Remind your loved ones. Every day. Be the voice that they hear every time they leave in that uniform.
WIN?
What's Important Now?
Getting home safe, that's what's important. And it starts with awareness and accountability.
Because I will happily be the crazy wife of Sgt Rawley that stands outside the station as all your husbands pull out in their police cars for their shift, knocking on their windows with a friendly reminder;
Got your vest on?
Seatbelt?
Slow down, be safe.
I would rather do that every night of my life than ever once have to hug you and say "I'm so sorry for your loss" at your loved one's funeral.
Wouldn't you?
Wouldn't you?
For those of you interested in attending this presentation, please contact me. The officers who put it on for us are happy to schedule another one. And though the material is not suitable for young children, I will be taking my 14 and 17 year olds to the next one. And I thank them for including me and giving KCPDFF the opportunity to participate!
Check out the website www.below100.com
We are at 93 LODD deaths currently this year, wouldn't it be amazing to keep it Below 100 in 2013? We can, but we all have to help.
Santa Maria, CA. This officer lived, and was wearing his vest and seatbelt.
This Asheville, NC, officer Robert Bingaman was driving 70mph in a 50mph zone, and not wearing his seat belt. EOW 10/29/13
What's Important Now?
