Gordon Graham... Saving the Lives of #1stresponders

By Gordon Graham

Gordon Graham here and thanks for taking the time to read this rambling on important things going on in the world of public safety in general and law enforcement in particular. If you have been to any of my live programs over the last 35 years, you know my focus in life is getting more and more people to understand the value of real risk management. While there are many definitions for risk management, I like the simple approach: What can go wrong and what can I do to prevent this from going wrong?

With the above in mind I am asking you to do what I do every morning. One of the first websites I visit is www.policemisconduct.net. This site is sponsored by The Cato Institute and they collect information daily on some of the things going wrong in law enforcement organizations around the U.S.

When you read this, I am asking you to ask this question: What control measures do we have in place to assure that this never happens to anyone in our department? As I have read these news stories for quite some time, I continually ask questions like the following: What control measures do we have in place to prevent patrol cars from being stolen on traffic stops? What control measures do we have in place to prevent cops from pulling out their pistol when they wanted to use the TASER? What control measures do we have in place to prevent this quadruple fatal at the end of a pursuit?

Twenty years ago, when Bruce Praet and I were looking at all of the tragedies in law enforcement we asked the same question: What can we do up front to prevent these tragedies from occurring? After a lot of thinking, we put together Lexipol. For those of you unfamiliar with Lexipol we focus on developing policies and training to prevent tragedies from occurring to law enforcement agencies and their personnel.

Why am I boring you with this? I encourage you to take a close look at www.policemisconduct.net every day, click on the link provided and take a look at how many of these tragedies involve alcohol and/or drug abuse. Then ask yourself the same question: What control measures do we have in place to address the alcohol and drug issues that we have in our organization? And please read this carefully. If you think you don’t have that issue in your department, you are not thinking correctly.

Every law enforcement agency in America has the potential to end up in a news story on www.policemisconduct.net and face all of the consequences that occur when you have a member of your organization (sworn or non-sworn) get involved in some event that involves their abuse of alcohol or drugs.

This is why I am a fan of Sean Riley and what his team of people at Safe Call Now® are doing today. Prevention is better than correction, so please take a look at what they offer to help you prevent such a tragedy from ever occurring in your department. It is our profession, so let’s protect all of our people up front.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Gordon Graham