NCJ Number
243893
Date Published
October 2013
Length
38 pages
Annotation
This study investigated rates of injuries sustained by law enforcement officers.
Abstract
This study, conducted by the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Bureau of Justice Assistance, investigated rates of injuries sustained by law enforcement officers. Analysis of injury reports from 18 agencies revealed that over a 1 year period, a total of 1,295 injuries were reported, resulting in 5,938 missed days or 59,380 missed or lost hours of work time when based on a 10-hour work day. The approximate cost for the lost work time was calculated at $1,211,352 with an additional $1,817,028 added on for overtime costs to cover assignments for injured officers for a combined total of over $3,000,000 in costs for injured officers. Additional details are presented on specific injury type, characteristics of the injured officer, involvement of a suspect, training received, and officer fitness attributes. Based on the analysis of the data, this report presents a set of recommendations to improve agency efforts to reduce officer injuries. These recommendations include closely tracking officer injuries along with circumstantial data in order to identify possible patterns of incidences and develop prevention strategies; the development of reduction strategies aimed at groups and types of officers that are more prone to injury; closer monitoring of offenders after arrest through improved police-probation/police strategic partnerships in order to reduce police encounters with offenders under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol; and improved officer training efforts in the areas of arrest procedure and tactics and use of force. This study was conducted to better understand the scope and frequency of injuries sustained by law enforcement officers in order to improve injury prevention efforts. Data for the study were obtained from 18 different law enforcement agencies of varying sizes and from 5 geographic regions around the country. The agencies were asked to track the scope of injuries sustained by their officers during a 1-year period. Tables, references, and appendixes