VAN BUREN — It’s been more than 75 years since there was a year when fewer than 100 officers were killed in the line of duty.
Below 100 is an initiative seeking is to reduce police officer line-of-duty deaths to fewer than 100 per year, something that hasn’t happened since 1943, explained National Park Service Ranger Daniel Newberry.
On average, he said, there have been between 150 and 200 deaths every year.
“It’s been like that for a long time,” he said. “The numbers are decreasing,” but it’s “still well over a 100 every year.”
As of Monday, there have been 89 deaths nationwide.
“We’re trying to spread (Below 100) across the nation,” said Newberry. “It’s spreading pretty good.”
Newberry recently coordinated Below 100 training, which was cosponsored by the NPS Traffic Safety Coalition in Washington, D.C.
About 20 officers, Newberry said, attended the free training.
Joining area officers, Newberry said, were two who flew in from the State of Texas, as well as others who came from as St. Louis, Salem and Eminence.
Some, he said, became Below 100 instructors at the conclusion of the training.
The initiative, Newberry said, focuses on what are considerable preventable deaths.
The two major causes of deaths are vehicle collisions and gun fire, Newberry said.
“It’s been like that for several years,” Newberry said. “Those two (causes) every year kill the most,” followed by directing traffic/working traffic.
“They came to the conclusion that there are five main” points for prevention, “everything we pretty much know to do as cops (and) don’t do,” Newberry said.
The first two encourage officers to wear his or her seat belt and bullet-proof vest, said Newberry, who indicated the third is to watch the speed.
“The first three are common sense,” Newberry said.
The fourth, he said, is WIN — What’s important now?
“If you run code, you run fast,” but “a lot of circumstances you don’t have to,” Newberry said.
An example, he said, is deciding if its necessary to run code when responding to a non-injury crash versus a crash with someone trapped, Newberry said.
“You have to ask yourself that the whole shift, ‘What’s important now?’” Newberry said.
Among the speakers at the training, Newberry said, was Kim Schlau, whose two daughters were killed by an officer driving 126 mph as he was “going to a nothing call. … That put it in perspective what can happen.”
Schlau reportedly now travels across the country speaking to officers about the dangers imposed on the public by speeding officers.
The last point, Newberry said, is complacency kills.
Being complacent is easy on traffic stops, something officers do hundreds of times ever week, Newberry said.
Officers, he said, get comfortable with being on their radio or laptop, but “it just takes one time to get in a wreck because your used to it.”
If any area department would like the Below 100 training, Newberry said, any of the new instructors, including himself, would be happy to conduct the class.
Newberry can be reached at his office at 573-323-8012 or by email at daniel_newberry@nps.gov.