Interact Business Group is very pleased to have a very special issue in this month's newsletter. Travis Yates knows his stuff. His dedication to public safety and drivers' education in particular are widely respected and admired. I hope you enjoy this remarkable article. If you ever needed to justify the need for drivers' training in your department, whether it is police or fire, look no more. Travis's expose is the defining work on the subject.

Bill Booth
Interact Business Group

How We Die -The Untold Story

By Captain Travis Yates / Tulsa Police Department

How do law enforcement officers die? Most of you are probably thinking you know. Unless you’ve been sleeping for the last decade, you’ve heard it. We’ve all heard it: guns and cars, with collisions leading the way for the past several years. I fear that we have somehow minimized these collisions by calling them “accidents” and throwing our hands in the air as if we can’t do anything. Whatever we are doing, it’s not working. More officers died in 2007 in vehicle collisions than any other year. This despite more agencies adding training, laws changing to curb police pursuits and the safety of cars at an all time high.

What are we doing wrong?

While we know how we die, the question is much more than vehicle collisions. Anyone who has read what I write or especially heard me speak knows that I do not shy away from placing blame square on the shoulders of police chiefs and sheriffs for the failure to train their officers. It’s inexcusable to deny officers training on a regular basis in an area that causes more injuries, deaths and civil litigation than anything else in law enforcement. With that said, there is an untold story. It is a phenomenon I have seen in recent years and one that I have not heard discussed

While it is easy to blame the leaders of an organization have we looked at the actual behavior of the officers? As I travel across the country, I hear a common theme from trainers: “We can’t get our officers to take this seriously.” I must admit that for every story I hear about a department leader not caring, I hear another story about an officer’s apathy. Maybe it has become routine to wreck a car. We think it’s part of doing business, until at least one of our own dies. Maybe that turns into a tragedy or a terrible crash. Maybe all of that is a bunch of crap. If our leaders won’t protect us, maybe we should do what it takes to protect ourselves. We must be accountable for our own actions, and that starts with drilling down to the real reason we are dying.

Captain Travis Yates commands the Precision Driver Training Unit with the Tulsa, Okla. Police Department. He is a nationally recognized driving instructor and a certified instructor in tire deflation devices and the pursuit intervention technique. Capt. Yates has a Master of Science Degree in Criminal Justice from Northeastern State University and is a graduate of the FBI National Academy. He is the owner of www.policedriving.com, a website dedicated to law enforcement driving issues and the Director of Ten-Four Ministries, dedicated to providing practical and spiritual support to the law enforcement community. You may contact Travis at Policedriving@yahoo.com.