Editor’s note: Through the end of the year, we will be posting a series of articles that focus on common-sense officer safety. Use them for briefing and squad meetings, and send them to everyone you know who wears a badge.
In today’s society, people spend countless hours and millions of dollars trying to find “the secret.” The secret to success. The secret to making millions of dollars. The secret to losing weight. The secret to being a great leader. The secret recipe of Colonel Saunders. You get the point. The reality is that there is no secret. There is however, a question and it truly is life’s most powerful question: What’s Important Now?
I first became aware of this question over a decade ago when I read the book Winning Every Day written by legendary football coach Lou Holtz. Holtz wanted the young men that played football for him to continuously ask themselves this question, knowing that doing so would help them prioritize the choices they were faced with—and make better decisions.
When you ask yourself, “What’s Important Now?” it quickly becomes clear that while The Colonel may have a secret recipe, there is no secret to being successful, getting rich or losing weight. However, there are proven strategies that, when executed well, will result in accomplishing your goals in each of those areas. The keys are focused effort, commitment to the mission, execution, hard work and sustained effort.
Likewise, there is no secret to reducing LE line-of-duty deaths (LODDs), but there are simple, proven strategies that when executed consistently will result in dramatic reductions in LODDs.
It starts with Life’s Most Powerful Question—What’s Important Now?
What’s Important Now? Wear your seatbelt. Make it a ritual to wear your seatbelt when your vehicle is in motion. Stop making excuses for not wearing it. Train to take it off in a manner that it clears the equipment on your duty belt.
What’s Important Now? Slow down. Law enforcement is a culture that drives too fast and it is killing us at an unacceptable rate. There is a reason that traffic educators all warn that “speed kills.”
What’s Important Now? Wear your body armor. Wear it on the street. Wear it in the office. Wear it to training. Wear it whether you are in an administrative function or an operational one. It is no secret that body armor saves lives; just ask the thousands of officers who are alive today because of it.
What’s Important Now? Remain vigilant. Be aware of your surroundings. Pay attention to body language and pre-attack indicators. Complacency gets us hurt and killed.
What’s Important Now? Live these tenets. Be a role model. Be a mentor. Have the courage to talk to your peers who continue to engage in dangerous behaviors. That conversation may piss them off—and it also may save their life.
