California Highway Patrol Calls For Safety Review

[SR-25]

Shaken by the deaths of six patrolmen since last fall, the California Highway Patrol has called for a two-day safety review with officers.

The "stand-down" for the highway patrol's 108 field offices won't affect deployments or service, CHP Commissioner Mike Brown said Monday.

Brown said there was "a lot of anger" within the department over the rash of deaths, the latest of which came over the weekend when a Southern California motorcycle officer was struck by a suspected drunken driver during a traffic stop.

The stand-down applies to the department's 7,287 uniformed officers and its 3,112 non-uniformed personnel. Field commanders will set aside several hours to discuss the events with their officers, reviewing the department's safety procedures and identifying any potential problems in policies or training.

Brown said internal reviews of the earlier deaths did not indicate the officers did anything wrong or that their deaths revealed gaps in department procedures.

Two of the officers were shot to death, two were struck during traffic stops, another died when his patrol car overturned during a chase and another was thrown from his motorcycle when it was struck from behind at a red light.

Brown called the high number of deaths in such a short time a coincidence.

"The facts and the causes are unique, and they're frankly not related," he said. "The reality is that these officers did everything we train them to do."

http://www.officer.com/article/artic...ion=1&id=28917

[66MP1]

Everyday I read the Officer Down website and it seems to me that more officers are being killed in traffic accidents than I can ever remember. I don't know if some of them are not paying attention to their driving or what. More are also being struck by other vehicles than I can remember. We are loosing too many.....

[USMC Chuter]

True story. I'm more worried about getting whacked by a passing car or getting into a bad crash than I am getting shot or stabbed.. It's the times we live in I guess. I know I've banged up my share of patrol cars, never involving injury though. Regarding the CHP safety stand down, it sounds as if their string of officer fatalities is fairly random rather than indicative of a trend. Never hurts to pause and re evaluate though.

[CFHSNJROTC]

This is very true nation wide including here on Long Island NY Traffic accidents are a major cause of officer deaths . It is good to see that the CHP kind of realizes there is a situation and is willing to discuss measures with its members.