NCJ Number
168972
Date Published
1997
Length
72 pages
Annotation
This study investigates issues relative to assessing and addressing risks to officer safety.
Abstract
The study was conducted over a 3-year period and addressed 40 distinct cases of serious assaults on law enforcement officers. The cases involved 52 victim officers and 42 offenders. Routine, repetitive tasks emerged as a continuing threat to officer safety. Traffic stops, searches, and use of handcuffs are examples of tasks that should be second nature to officers but presented problems to the victims in the cases studied. Officers cited training as critical to the actions they took to protect themselves. Post-assault trauma and recovery proved to be areas that perhaps have not received appropriate attention from the law enforcement community. Many of the victim officers in the study displayed an uncommon "will to survive," an attitude many officers attributed to their survival training. This article reports extensive information on the victims, offenders, and incidents studied, and identifies specific areas where law enforcement training and procedures may be improved. Figures, tables, appendixes, references