“We had to change the culture where bad driving became the norm.”
Cpt. Larry Cecchettini (ret.), Yolo County, Calif. doesn’t mince words. He’s passionate about the topic of traffic safety as it pertains to officer behavior because he’s seen the negative impact poor driving practices can have on all involved. He also has first-hand experience with the massive benefits a new approach can bring. Cecchettini attended a Below 100 seminar in San Diego, October 2012. “They were showing videos of cops doing stupid things and everything captured on the dash camera... getting into crashes, killing people, killing themselves, those kinds of things. And it really struck a chord with me. I know our cops are speeding. I didn’t know how to stop it.” Cecchettini immediately brought the issue back to his squad room in the hopes of implementing a culture change.
In the spotlight
There are a few ways agencies might tackle the problem, and in fact more attention is being paid to departments that are getting it right. A number of agencies were recently awarded last year for their efforts—and success—in reducing traffic fatalities in their state. Down South, the Sewanee Police Department and Hickman County Sheriff’s Departments in Madison County, Tennessee received new fully equipped squad cars when they were recognized for their parts in reducing traffic fatalities by a third.
In Vermont, the Grand Isle County Sheriff’s Department received two awards during the annual International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) conference in Chicago. The small sheriff’s department has 14 sworn officers.
Vermont’s Sheriff Ray Allen began his public safety career volunteering with the local rescue squad before transferring to law enforcement. He was appointed sheriff in Grand Isle in 2011. The city’s meager winter population of 7,000 balloons to almost 20,000 during the summer months and the town’s handful of officers are tasked with covering about 85 square miles of land and 120 square miles of water (Lake Champlain).
Allen attributes his team’s success in reducing crash fatalities to their proactive approach on patrol. “We have high visibility patrols and aggressive motor vehicle enforcement. We have the reputation that you do not speed in Grand Isle County. It works!”
When Ceccettini with Yolo County pulled up crash data from the past 8 years (2005-2012) he and his supervisors found deputies had driven at more than 90 MPH approximately 616 times; there had been 101 crashes, of those 15 deputies had been injured, two were forced to retire, and in the previous 10 years the department had paid out over one million dollars in liability, property damage, workers comp and legal fees. Part of the county’s new initiative meant leveraging data from existing dash cams that sent an activation whenever the vehicle exceeded 90 mph.
“We had a problem. A lot of agencies look at speeding as [a hazard of the job]. We quickly learned after we’d implemented the Below 100 program and started monitoring it through technology that it is not the cost of doing business,” says Cecchettini.
Swapping stories
It pays to take note of what success looks like. At least, that’s the idea behind programs like Below 100 and the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund’s new Destination Zero Initiative, introduced in 2014. On the Destination Zero website agencies can look peer into the “cheat sheets” of agencies—small and large—who excel in various wellness and safety programs, including traffic safety.
Steve Groeninger, a retired D.C. traffic safety police officer and Sr. Director of Communications and Marketing for NLEOMF, says the program is meant to spur innovation and create a platform for officers to see what others are doing as far as procedures, brochures, and other plans for improvement. “Our database is growing,” says Groeninger. He believes small changes can lead to significant results, from encouraging seat belt use—“A lot of officers don’t want to wear it; their equipment gets caught,”—to speed monitoring, as is the case in Yolo County.
NLEOMF displays materials on their site like the poster that urges “Drive like a life depends on it”. The poster was created by Yolo County in reference to the Illinois state trooper who lost control of the patrol car he was driving in 2007, crossed the median, and ultimately killed two teenage girls heading to Thanksgiving at their father’s, Jessica and Kelly Uhl. Posters like these are displayed throughout squad rooms, break rooms, even rest rooms in Yolo County and elsewhere to serve as a constant reminder.
Kim Schlau, the girls’ mother, now travels the country relating the story to officers in an effort to put a face (or faces) to the policy. “I couldn’t event listen to this story... When I came back into the room I told [Schlau], ‘I promise you this, I will slow our cars down,’” says Cecchettini.
He and his department were awarded Destination Zero’s “Officer Traffic Safety Award” for their proactive measures to demonstrate…a program’s success in improving traffic-related safety practices. Was it a smooth process? Not always. Was it worth it? Absolutely.
Cecchettini says, “Of course there are times when you’re going to need to speed to get there ... but turn your emergency lighting on and drive within law and policy.” On the expanded dash-cam program: “We told them, ‘This is not Big Brother, this is for your safety.’”
The payoff
The right strategy can save lives as well as dollars spent.
After a year of implementing new training and policy, Yolo County had reduced speed activations by 94 percent. After the first year they had zero crashes or injuries.
“To reward deputies for going a whole year without a crash for the first time in the history of our department, every deputy was given a certificate and a challenge coin mounted in it—they were gorgeous certificates,” says Cecchetini.
He credits the deputies for the department’s success: “They made the commitment to this program to ensure their fellow deputies go home safety after every shift.” After two years—still crash-free—the department estimated its savings at nearly two hundred thousand dollars (for a $900 program). These days, Cecchetini provides telephone consulting for police agencies by phone from his house at no charge.
Additional strategies that agencies are looking into include emphasizing safety gear and restricting mobile digital computer use at higher speeds. Trash collectors and construction workers are required to done hi-vis vests on roadways. Why not officers? And in regards to in-car distractions, some agencies are looking into computers that power down when a vehicle reaches more than 30 miles per hour. The only item on the screen would be the call they are responding to.
“Cops are cops,” says Groeninger with NLEOMF. “There’s a certain amount of bravado that goes with the job, and sometimes that leads to a lapse in personal safety.” He adds, if an agency has a program that works for them, “We’d like to hear about it.”
