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ON THE JOB NEWS EYE ON EDUCATION JUST HANDED DOWN DISCIPLINE MISSION CRITICAL SYSTEMS Strategic Initiatives for Risk Management, Part 1 Promoting a Culture of Safety By Adrienne Quigley and Randy Means forcement have outnumbered felonious deaths for Randy Means is a partner in Thomas & Means, a law firm specializing the past 15 years. entirely in police operations and administration. He has served the national law A recent Survey of Occupaenforcement community full time for more than 30 years and is the author tional Injuries and Illnesses of "The Law of Policing," which is available at LRIS.com. He can be reached documented an incidence directly at rbmeans@aol.com. rate of 14.5 injuries per 100 full-time local law enforceCaptain Adrienne Quigley is a 17-year veteran of the Arlington County, Va. Police ment officers and a rate of Department. She has held supervisory positions in patrol, investigations and profes5.9 for state law enforcement sional standards, and is a nationally recognized expert in officer safety and injury officials. Extrapolating from prevention. She graduated with high honors from The George Washington University data provided by the Bureau and her Master's Degree in Public Administration is from George Mason University. of Labor Statistics to estabwww.thomasandmeans.com lish the number of state and local law enforcement personEd. Note: This article is the frst in a multi-part series that focuses on risk nel employed during that year, officers sustained management through improved focus on safety and wellness through strategic approximately 106,950 work-related injuries and leadership initiatives. illnesses during 2008, only 15,554 of which were attributable to an assault. In fact, more officers suffer injuries during slips and falls or while participating in departmental training than during assaults. R isk management thinking in law enforcement often centers on liability prevention in activities like deadly force and high-speed driving. However, less spectacular matters exact higher tolls in both human and dollar costs, and preventing civil liability is only one aspect of risk management. OSHA reports that 56,000 lives are lost each year to work-related accidents. In an average day, 154 people die from occupational disease or in work-place accidents and an additional 16,000 are injured. Injuries and illnesses account for more than 700,000 lost work-days per year. To put this in statistical perspective, occupational disease and accidents kill more people each year in the United States than were lost in all the years of the Vietnam War. Public safety employment is even more dangerous than other types of work, with injury and fatality rates three times higher than in non-public safety occupations. A common misperception is that these negatives occur mostly in violent encounters with armed suspects. The reality is that accidental deaths in law en- "Accidental deaths have outnumbered felonious deaths for the past 15 years." 12 LAW and ORDER I July 2013 Often overlooked in law enforcement efforts at risk management and austerity more generally are workers' compensation losses and disability payouts. A comprehensive review of risk management data in North Carolina over the past five years defined average medical costs for common law enforcement injuries. Bone fractures average just over $23,000 per injury; strains/sprains cost approximately $12,000; and contusions can cost up to $13,000. Single serious incidents, such as a motorcycle crash with head trauma, can cost an agency close to $7 million. One study tabbed the expense of early retirement due to disability at 165 percent of an officer's salary. And none of these figures include paying for the overtime and training required to backfill a position while an officer is on medical leave or restricted duty. According to national accident, injury and illness data, 20 percent of the average law enforcement agency's workforce is responsible for 80 percent of workers' compensation losses. Simply focusing on that 20 percent could result in significant savings for an organization through reduced health care costs, lower workers compensation losses, and fewer disability payments.