Archive

Live to Retire is a continuing series of articles written by Law Enforcement Officer Safety Advocate Doyle T. Wright. Each article is written with the intent to increase awareness of the dangers faced by law enforcement professionals and provide meaningful solutions and options to reduce risk. Live to Retire articles can be found in numerous law enforcement magazines and journals including materials by the Public Agency Training Council and the Journal.

Comments, article submissions, and critique are always sought from readers.

LTR #6 If Only - The most recent article
If you and those with whom you serve survived 2004 without becoming the victim of violence, give thanks…but also give thought to all those encounters that could’ve ended much differently. Give thought to what you did, things you might’ve done, and what you’ll do when you again face those situations that steal so many law enforcement lives year after year.

Perhaps more cops would survive if only they acknowledged that every call, every citizen contact, and every task often viewed as mundane - like driving to the location where help is needed and approaching the door to make contact - harbored such danger. If only…

LTR #5 Deranged + Defiant = Deadly
Officer survival has been my area of study has for many years. But despite intensive research and an exhaustive review of felonious assaults on cops, neither I or any other law enforcement trainer can produce a “Magical Tactical Checklist” that, if followed, would guarantee your personal safety in every law enforcement situation. There are simply too many variables, the primary one being the sheer unpredictability of human beings in crisis. And while you cannot completely eliminate the dangers associated with police work, there certainly are things that you can do to mitigate them

LTR #4 The Perils of Policing
This article is intended to raise awareness of the dangers of policing by providing some insight into a representative group of tragic situations that have occurred in just the first six months of 2004.

LTR #3 Deadly Disarmings
In this offering, I’d intended to quote recent statistics and write in general terms about the traditional activities that all too often result in cops becoming the victims of violence. But while reviewing the circumstances surrounding officer murders that have occurred as of late, an alarming commonality in several such events screamed for immediate attention: officer disarmings.

LTR #2 The Motorized Menace
In last month’s article, I wrote about police suicide, and some may have been bewildered to learn that more than 400 police officers kill themselves during a typical year. In this offering, I’ll discuss a demon that claims fewer lives than suicide, but one that plays a major role in causing more serious and fatal injuries to cops than even the most dangerous of armed assailants…the modern motor vehicle.

LTR #1 Law Enforcement’s Dirty BIG Secret
In future postings of The Briefing I intend to write about these “traditional” law enforcement endeavors. However, I felt an obligation to discuss in this first offering the greatest single threat to officers’ longevity: Suicide. I refer to police suicide as “Law Enforcement’s Dirty BIG Secret” since, despite the frequency with which it occurs, it’s a topic seldom discussed. And the numbers are startling: A police officer commits suicide in this nation about every 22 hours – it’s estimated that more than 400 cops die each year in this fashion.

If you have an immediate need for information, please contact us by phone at: 317-733-1971 or we can be reached by email at: dtw169@livetoretire.com