Ron Avery, a columnist for PoliceOne.com, recently wrote an informative training article for dealing with areas that have concealed carry laws. Here are some thoughts to share with your personnel when they have to contact citizens who may be carrying concealed:

• People who have gone through the process of getting a concealed carry permit are, in general, law abiding citizens, not felons.
• Do not expect them to know the letter of the law or the interpretations of the law in various districts—they will have a general idea what the law states
• IF THERE IS PROBABLE CAUSE to treat someone who may be carrying a concealed weapon as an armed criminal, by all means do so — however, when you make a contact with a CCW, proning them out wouldn’t be my first option without digging a little deeper

Here are some more thoughts to consider:
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What have you missed on Lion Connects? For a bi-weekly email digest of articles, events and upcoming promotions, sign up for the Lion Connects e-Newsletter! You can also view previous emails by clicking “view previous campaigns” below.

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Actually, Vandalia/Butler Twp Ohio is where Lion lives. WKEF-TV Channel 22/WRGT Fox 45 recently covered a week-long feature on our North-Dayton community and the businesses within. Click here to check out the video highlighting Lion and the services we provide.

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For the first time in three years, the number of on-the-job firefighter deaths in the United States has dropped below 100. According to the National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) annual Firefighter Fatality Report (PDF, 267 KB), released June 7, 2010 at the NFPA Conference & Expo, shows a sharp drop in the number of fatalities in 2009. Eighty-two firefighters were killed in the line of duty last year, substantially fewer than the 10-year average of 98 and down even more from the 105 killed in 2008. This is the lowest annual total since NFPA recorded 79 deaths in 1993 and the third lowest total since NFPA began this study in 1977.

“While a drop over one year certainly isn’t enough to show a trend, it is definitely encouraging to see the number of firefighter fatalities drop well below that 10-year average,” said Rita Fahy, NFPA’s manager of fire databases and systems. “We are hopeful that we will continue to see fewer and fewer firefighter fatalities over the next 10 years.”

Each year, NFPA collects data on all firefighter fatalities in the U.S. that resulted from injuries or illnesses that occurred while the victims were on-duty. The report is a compelling picture of the risks to the nation’s firefighters.

As in most years, the number one cause of on-duty firefighter fatalities was sudden cardiac death. While the number of such deaths has been trending downwards since the late 1970s, sudden cardiac death still accounted for 39 percent of the on-duty deaths in the last five years, and 42 percent in 2009 alone, underscoring the need for wellness-fitness programs and health screenings for firefighters across the nation.

Click here to read the entire news release and learn about other key findings in the report.

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The Boston Herald recently reported that more than 1,600 Bay State motorists cited for breaking the highly touted move-over law – and jeopardizing the lives of state and local cops – have beat the reckless driving rap in court despite aggressive ticketing efforts by cops.

The shocking new numbers come after two troopers were struck by holiday motorists over the July 4th weekend and two weeks after state police Sgt. Douglas Weddleton was killed by an alleged drunken driver.

“It’s not taken seriously by the courts and maybe it’s not being respected by the public and it’s my troopers and emergency workers who are at risk,” said Rick Brown, president of the State Police Association of Massachusetts.

State courts have broomed 43 percent of all move-over law citations since the measure went into effect in March 2009, figures show.

Officers have handed out 3,792 citations as of March, RMV figures show. Of those citations, 40 percent or 1,509 drivers have been found responsible and paid the $100 fine, while 1,613 drivers beat the ticket, figures show. The remaining 680 citations were entered as defaults or are still pending before the court, the RMV said.

New Jersey cops have handed out 542 move-over citations since 2009, a Motor Vehicles Commission spokesman said. The courts closed 440 of those cases, issuing guilty findings 65 percent of the time.

The law requires motorists to slow down and, if possible, move to the left when approaching stationary emergency vehicles. State transportation figures show there have been 46 fatalities near or in work sites from 2002 to 2008.

Do you think similar laws in your community are being taken seriously?

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PoliceOne.com recently published a great article offering advice on how to obtain grants for training. Funders want to see a well thought out plan of action, a community assessment for determining needs for training as well as full maximization of existing facilities. They also require you to complete a cost/benefit analysis of the existing and proposed training opportunities. So where do you begin to get funded for training programs?

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From the Everyone Goes Home website: The way to help firefighters who have dealt with potentially traumatic events is changing. Much has been learned from the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation’s work in New York after September 11th and following the loss of nine firefighters at a furniture store fire in Charleston, S.C. in 2007. A briefing on this new model at Firehouse Expo in Baltimore later this week will answer all your questions as to how—as a chief officer, family member or colleague—you can help firefighters deal with the stress, grief and trauma that often goes along with this profession.

As part of the Everyone Goes Home® program, a briefing on Initiative 13 – Behavioral Health (Consensus Protocol on Firefighter Behavioral Health) will be presented at Firehouse Expo on Friday, July 23, 2010 at the Hilton Hotel in Baltimore, Md. This new initiative is based on over three years of interdisciplinary consultation and national consensus building exercises.

(more…)

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PoliceOne.com issued a key message for law enforcement that applies to fire departments and EMS, too:

Want political representatives, community activists, and/or the media in your area to better understand the challenges, dangers, and difficulties you face as a police officer? Want to help decrease incidents of these individuals making wide-sweeping uneducated statements about police work and coming to ignorant conclusions? Be proactive and consider inviting them into “your world.”

• Make an effort to reach out to these people and invite them to participate in ride-alongs
• Suggest that they sit in on select training sessions and give them firsthand experience in real-world scenarios
• Keep yourself open and available to explaining the law enforcement side of things should they have questions (and be open to listening and learning)

As we all know, lack of understanding in the public sector can be dangerous to law enforcement. Taking steps to help build understanding and hopefully some empathy can go a long way… in a lot of ways.

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Did you know that most in-home fire deaths are a result of the home having no smoke alarms or no working smoke alarms? To keep your home safe, smoke alarms should be installed on every level. Check out the following video in which NFPA’s Lorraine Carli explains how you can protect your family in the event of a fire and why smoke alarms are one of the best safety inventions for your home.

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The structural fire fighter is subjected to many hazards that could cause serious head, face, or neck injuries without the protection of a firefighting helmet. Because the technology of head protection is so advanced and NFPA requirements are so stringent, the incidence of head injury has been relatively controlled. Perhaps the greatest single reason many fire fighter head impact injuries are relatively minor and infrequent is because helmets are almost always worn at all times at the scene. The same tradition and training is not always true for protective hoods and SCBA. That may be one reason why the most common injuries to the head, neck, or face are from burns.

The structural helmet is designed to mitigate the risk of impact (falling objects, glancing blows, etc.), penetration (nails, rebar, glass, etc.), and thermal assault. The helmet must also provide eye or face protection (or both). NFPA-compliant goggles provide eye protection from debris, ash, embers, chemicals, etc. when the SCBA face piece is not engaged (as in overhaul operations). To be considered primary eye protection, goggles must meet ANSI Z87.1-2003. Most face shields do not meet primary eye-protection requirements.

Because of the known hazards, NFPA testing requirements are extremely demanding, resulting in an increasingly higher level of protection afforded by NFPA-complaint headgear. Most fire fighter helmets rely on the combination of three components to provide protection: a hard outer shell, an energy absorption system, and a suspension system. There are, however, some fire fighter helmets on the market that have designed the energy absorption system right into the suspension system and an outer shell so durable and resistant to impact that no extra energy absorption components are needed. The hard outer shell provides protection against penetration from sharp objects. It also helps dissipate the energy from a falling object by deflecting the blow, as well as by spreading the load of the blow over a large surface area. The energy absorption system provides impact protection by further dissipating any energy of transmitted force through the shell. Finally, the suspension system is made up of a series of straps anchored into the helmet. When a blow occurs to the top of the head, the force that would ordinarily be transferred to the fire fighter’s head and neck is absorbed by the stretching action of the suspension straps. The best level of protection from head injuries on the fireground, however, is when each component works together as a cohesive system.

Editor’s note: This is the first in a five-part look at the science behind head protection.

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