For many in law enforcement, this column’s title immediately conjures the teachings of Gordon J. Graham, the retired California Highway Patrol captain, attorney, and risk manager who over the years has offered law enforcement professionals so much down-to-earth advice to enhance officer safety and concomitantly reduce costs by eliminating flawed practices and avoiding litigation and lost duty time. While we continue to appreciate Graham’s fascinating presentations, we unfortunately have not learned the lessons he has tried to teach us.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI’s) recently released Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted [LEOKA] 2010 and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Characteristics of Law Enforcement Officers’ Fatalities in Motor Vehicle Crashes regrettably contain data to demonstrate that we are not listening to the extent we should be in order to reduce officers’ line-of-duty deaths. These reports underscore the sheer constancy of officers’ accidental deaths for considerably more than a decade and our apparent acquiescence to these tragedies. We must never forget that the numbers in these documents represent flesh and blood: the spouses, the parents, the siblings, the children, the neighbors, the coworkers, and the subordinates who comprise America’s thin blue line.