The program is based on the following five tenets: "Wear your belt;" "wear your vest;" "watch your speed;" "what's important now?" (situational awareness and decisionmaking); and "remember complacency kills." Using volunteer trainers, Below 100 conducts 1-day training sessions throughout the United States. The hosting agency is generally responsible for travel costs for the trainers, but most presentations have been presented free to every officer who wants to attend. Officers are informed of the circumstances under which officer line-of-duty deaths occur; for example, during 14 of the last 15 years, more officers have been killed in vehicle-related incidents than gun-fire incidents. Half of these fatal crashes involved only the deceased officer's vehicle. An extensive review found that 50 percent of officers don't wear their seatbelts when on patrol. Officers are also dying in shooting incidents that probably would not have resulted in death if they had been wearing body armor. Officers who have been trained in Below 100 have conducted similar training for officers in their own agencies as well as other agencies. In 2013, line-of-duty deaths totaled 105, a 14-percent decline from the previous year, the lowest in just over 50 years. The two leading causes of death were vehicle-related incidents and gun-fire.
Below 100 Program Emphasizes Safety Training to Reduce Officer Deaths
NCJ Number
244835
Journal
Techbeat Dated: January/February 2014 Pages: 3-6
Date Published
February 2014
Length
4 pages
Annotation
"Below 100" is a free training program for police officers that aims to provide instruction that will assist in reducing the number of annual line-of-duty officer deaths to below 100, a number not achieved since 1944.
Abstract
Date Published: February 1, 2014