No Unwanted Projectiles Inside Your Patrol Vehicle

Some number of years ago, working as an Officer In Charge (OIC) while the Chief was on vacation, I had the displeasure of responding to a traffic accident involving one of my patrol officers. He had joined in a fast chase and, at an intersection where he had a green light, an elderly individual pulled their car out in front of him, making a legal right turn on red but oblivious to the two patrol cars that had already gone through the intersection with lights and sirens blaring and equally oblivious to my patrol officer’s cruiser fast entering the intersection. During the course of the collision, his vehicle impacted hers and was sent across two lanes of westbound traffic, across a small median and into oncoming eastbound traffic. Thankfully, there were no further impacts, and his vehicle came to rest on the curb. Unfortunately, due to several objects within his cruiser that had become projectiles during the multiple impacts, he received multiple injuries resulting in bone fractures, lacerations requiring stitches and damage to one eye orbit that endangered his sight.

While we may not be able to prevent all such accidents, we can take positive action, by way of interior space design and equipment selection, to prevent the creation of dangerous projectiles inside our patrol vehicle in the event of unexpected impacts.

Securing equipment can be done in one of two basic ways: 1. We can anchor a mount to the vehicle’s floor, transmission hump, etc. and then lock equipment into the mount, or 2. We can put locking containers into the vehicle and then secure our equipment inside the lock boxes. The challenge most often seen with the second approach is that lock-boxes are used but not anchored. If we put smaller items into a bigger box but then don’t secure the box to keep it from moving, all we’ve accomplished is to create a larger and heavier projectile if there’s an accident.

Let’s consider the driver/passenger compartment first. For law enforcement, we have several necessary pieces of equipment, although the number is smaller than it used to be. What was common to see within the driver’s reach? A radio, a laptop computer, lights and siren controls, sometimes a second radio (county versus city), a scanner, and a mount for a shotgun or rifle. More often than not, all of that was mounted in a rack that was centered between the front seats, with the laptop computer mounted on a swingarm above the center rack and the long gun mounted either behind the driver’s right arm on or up against the partition separating the front seat area from the back, or on the floor on the passenger side of the transmission hump — a location that we quickly learned interfered with the placement of the laptop mount.

One thing that seems to be sometimes ignored is the necessary clearance for airbag deployment. Let’s not forget that a deploying airbag creates quite a bit of energy and, if everything isn’t installed and secured properly, the “popping” airbag can push/throw objects around the interior, and sometimes directly at the driver.

With an ever-increasing number of SUVs being used for patrol and far fewer sedans, designs changed. With the advent of computer-controlled lights and sirens, and more communications coming through the computer instead of a radio, there is less crammed into the center space in the front seat and therefore fewer potential projectiles. Still, there are other items such as e-citation handhelds, printers, flashlights, individual first aid kits (wouldn’t it be ironic if an IFAK caused an injury as it bounced around at high velocity inside the passenger compartment?) and more. Extra handcuffs are hung on searchlight handles; gear bags holding lunch or dinner, extra magazines, pens, etc. are almost always open, rarely secured to the passenger seat, and the all-too-common metal water bottle is shoved someplace where it won’t move… until you’re in an accident at 50-plus mph.

All of the above begs the question: What is the solution to keeping your gear secure and prevent it from potentially harming you in accident? The secondary questions is, how do I make sure no arrestee can access any of it? (Keeping gear secure doesn’t just mean keeping it from moving during an accident.)

If you go to Officer.com and use the search feature to enter “patrol vehicle storage,” and select the COMPANY option on the left side, you’ll get over 650 returns. Thanks to the vagaries of computer search engines, some of them won’t actually be storage product companies, but the large majority of them are. Some of the companies are well known in the industry, and you likely have some of their products already in or on your patrol vehicle. Manufacturers such as Setina and Gamber-Johnson provide secure cargo-area storage drawers, interior partitions, and exterior protective equipment designed specifically for patrol SUVs. Gamber-Johnson — best known for its rugged consoles and computer-mounting systems — has evolved into a full bumper-to-bumper solutions provider through its Team GJ product portfolio, offering mounting options throughout the vehicle, inside and out. There’s also a surprising number of custom and specialty solutions available to meet needs you may not have even considered.

Speaking of custom and specialty, everything written above about the need to secure gear inside a patrol vehicle applies equally to the outside (because we don’t want a projectile coming off our patrol vehicle and hitting a pedestrian), and to every specialty vehicle your agency may use as well, from parking enforcement electric vehicles to motorcycles to “scooters” and more. Each of those is unfortunately sometimes in an accident as well and you don’t want anything on or in them coming loose to potentially add to your injury or causing an injury to a bystander.

For many officers, the patrol vehicle is personally assigned, meaning they don’t share the vehicle with other officers. For probably an equal number though, the patrol vehicles are “pool cars” and see a different officer driving them each shift. Those pool patrol vehicles probably present the greatest chance of harm from improper mounting or storage of equipment. Where patrol officers using them have to take the initiative is in making sure their own gear is secured properly when they begin their shift, and to inspect for anything unsafe before they drive that vehicle out of the lot. Even if the vehicle is assigned to a given officer, but not a “take home” car (it must be parked in a given location that’s not the officer’s residence), it should be inspected prior to each shift. Let’s be honest: vehicle inspections should be done before every shift anyway, but they might be the most neglected pre-shift work item for law enforcement. It’s tedious and even when deficiencies are found, someone else decides if it’s something that will take the vehicle out of service or if the officer is going to patrol in that vehicle anyway

Keep this in mind: It’s your assigned patrol vehicle, even if only for the shift. Inside of it, you must be safe — and that includes making sure you’re safe from potentially dangerous objects flying around inside of it if you get in an accident. Before you pull out of your driveway or the station lot, make sure there are no avoidable dangers you’ve got along as unwanted passengers.