The Bridgeport Police Department has launched the Arrive Aliveprogram aimed at reducing police-involved injuries and deaths while responding to emergencies.
The concept was generated from the department’s Leadership Institute, a collaboration between Bridgeport Police and Sacred Heart University crafted to provide advanced training for police supervisors around the region.
“Police officers have a duty to protect and serve our community,” said Mayor Bill Finch. “They also have a duty to come home safely to their families at the end of their shift. Every officer knows that seconds count when lives are at stake. This program is designed to remind them that, in order to protect and serve, they need to arrive at the scene safely first.”
Arrive Alive was instituted as an effort to reduce those dangers. The goal is officer safety and the program is designed to reinforce – every day — the importance of wearing seatbelts and to slow at intersections when responding to emergencies.
“We know that nationally half of all officers who die in the line of duty are killed in motor vehicle accidents,” said Police Chief Joseph Gaudett Jr. “This is an inherently dangerous job. The community depends on our officers to keep them safe. We have a duty to keep our officers safe as well.”
Through Arrive Alive, dispatchers remind officers several times every shift to buckle up and check their intersections when responding to emergencies.
Supervisors reinforce that message during every roll call at the beginning of shifts, and posters are displayed throughout the department stressing that the most important factor is to “Arrive Alive.”
The numbers are sobering. In 2011, 171 officers died in the line of duty. In 2012, 122 officers were killed. In 2013, 100 officers died.
“This is an inherently dangerous profession. Officers wouldn’t think about starting their shift without their bulletproof vest. But in the last decade, more police officers have been killed in motor vehicle accidents that by any other cause,” Gaudett said.
Arrive Alive was designed solely to remind officers to remain safe while driving on duty. Lt. Brian Fitzgerald, who helped organize the program, noted that the department trains and equips each officer to protect themselves against assault and gunfire.
“The numbers don’t lie. Officers are far more likely to be injured or killed in a car accident, and the Bridgeport Police Department has a vested interest in keeping our officers safe.”
Bill Kaempffer
Public Safety Spokesman
Bridgeport Police Department
Bridgeport Fire Department