A training session this week for Columbus police officers was supposed to be about saving their lives, says the Columbus Dispatch. It was supposed to teach them how to be safer in their jobs, how to not let their guard down, how to stop making dumb mistakes. The bottom line is that their mistakes don't affect only themselves.
Nationally last year, 105 law-enforcement officers died in the line of duty. So far this year, 107 officers have lost their lives on duty, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page, a national nonprofit group regarded as an official record-keeper. An effort called Below 100 was conceived a few years ago at a national law-enforcement conference. The concept is simple: Retrain law-enforcement officers about ways to stay safe, thereby reducing the national number of line-of-duty deaths to below 100, a statistic last seen in the 1940s. The ideas are basic: Always wear a seat belt (nationally, half of the law-enforcement officers killed in crashes were not); always wear a bulletproof vest; slow down; focus on the moment; and remember that complacency kills.