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FEATURE The Necessary Truths About Police Safety LeadershipÕs Role in Creating a Culture of Safety In every one of the OSW Group discussions, the issue of law enforcement culture came up as everyone worked to identify ways of reducing offcer deaths and injuries. There are many variations on the defnition of organizational culture, but at its simplest form it is "how things are done around here" (Deal and Kennedy, 1982). How things are done refects 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 infuence culture, but it is clear the chief executive offcer plays a critically important role in changing culture. The Fairfax County, Va. and the Boca Raton, Fla. 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 ftness. Fairfax County, Va. Police Chief David Rohrer established a full-time officer safety position with signifcant authority that is supported by part-time safety offcers 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 compensation claims decreased 29 percent from FY2009 to FY2010. Vehicle collision claims dropped over the same period by 18 percent. The total number of safetyrelated claims in FY2010 dropped 23.7 percent from FY09. The numbers have been maintained at a favorable level since then (Caminos, 2012). A police department's workforce and those who represent it also heavily in- Click on EInfo at - www.lawandordermag.com reader service #36 86 LAW and ORDER I October 2013 fuence organizational culture. Detective Bob Cherry is a 20-year veteran of the Baltimore Police Department and president of the Baltimore City Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3. He has played a key role in working with department management to reduce offcer-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 educational campaign aimed at safety on both a national and agency level. Captain Adrienne Quigley of the Arlington County, Va. Police Department suggests offcer safety issues are a bigger problem than many realize. She points to these statistics: • Based on established incidence rates, law enforcement offcers 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). • A law enforcement offcer who is not ft 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 ftness 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). Quigley recommends that managers take these actions: • Make injury mitigation a priority. • Adopt and enforce policies that keep offcers safe, including foot pursuits, seatbelt policies, and fatigue monitoring. • Provide officers with equipment and training to reduce injuries.