Clear and Present Danger
Intersections remain one of the most dangerous environments for police officers, accounting for an estimated 25% to 40% of crashes involving cruisers. Despite the risks, officials say clearing intersections remains one of the most difficult skills to teach realistically.
OFFICER Magazine Managing Editor Paul Peluso reported on a webinar between Nick Bruel, the senior program manager for the National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund, and retired officer Kelly Couch, an emergency vehicle operations instructor at the Oregon Public Safety Academy, about what agencies are doing to improve training. When it comes to educating officers on safe intersection clearing, Bruel believes instructors need to think out of the box:
"I think that with some creativity we could at least broach that subject and provide some sort of exercises as an emergency vehicle operations trainer where we can train officers to some degree in intersection clearing."
Read Paul's dive into what works and what's being done to make sure officers get through intersections without incident.
Other stories to check out this month include:
—Joe Vince
News Editor
