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President's Blog Jul 28, 2016
Too many, too soon...
by Paul Hahs

To all MCLEA Members,

July is nearly over, and we find ourselves halfway through another year. 2016 has been a hard year for the law enforcement profession as we have lost 69 members of our family. Of that 69, the Great State of Texas leads the nation with 14 officers killed in the line of duty.  Here is a list each of those officers killed in Texas below, with the manner in which they were killed:

Sergeant Craig Hutchinson, Travis County Sheriff's Office:                                     Gunfire

Corrections Officer Mari Johnson, TDCJ:                                                                   Assault

Police Officer Marco Antonio Zarate, Bellaire Police Department:                       Vehicle pursuit

Police Officer Brent Alan Thompson, Dallas Area Rapid Transit Police:                Gunfire

Police Officer Patricio E. Zamarripa, Dallas Police Department:                            Gunfire

Police Officer Michael Leslie Krol, Dallas Police Department:                                Gunfire

Sergeant Michael Joseph Smith, Dallas Police Department:                                  Gunfire

Senior Corporal Lorne Bradley Ahrens, Dallas Police Department:                       Gunfire

Police Officer Calvin "Mark" McCullers, SMU Police Department:                        Drowned

Sergeant Stacey Allen Baumgartner, Patton Village Police Department:             Vehicle pursuit

Police Officer Endy Nddiobong Ekpanya, Pearland Police Department:              Vehicular assault

Trooper Jeffrey Nichols, Texas Department of Public Safety:                                Automobile accident

Patrolman David Ortiz, El Paso Police Department:                                                Motorcycle accident

Police Officer David Stefan Hofer, Euless Police Department:                               Gunfire

We are not here to judge whether they could have done something “better” or different, but rather to pay our respect to their sacrifice and to make their death mean something more than just a statistic. We do this by learning from them; what actions caused their deaths, and what we can do to help prevent this happening to us and our partners.   We should always be vigilant, know our surroundings, watch each other’s backs, and fall back on our training. If our training is deficient, it is on us to find the training we need to fill those gaps. If tactics are your issue, find someone who knows police tactics well and have them help you get up to speed. If shooting is your weak point, talk to the Academy staff and they will be happy to show you ways to improve your accuracy. I know ammo is expensive, but they can teach you several dry-fire drills that will cost you nothing but your time, which is a cheap investment in your survival!

Heart attacks are always in the top two or three categories of police line of duty deaths. However, if extrapolated to a full 24-hour day, heart attack likely becomes the number one killer of men and women in uniform. This is not new information. More than 20 years ago, International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) published some of their initial data (Violanti, 2013). The data are shocking. The life expectancy of a police officer is 20 years less than his or her civilian counterpart. The average age of a law enforcement officer (LEO) who has suffered a heart attack is 49 years, compared to 67 years of age for the general population.

Finally, it is known that a LEO is twenty-five times more likely to suffer death and disability from heart disease than from a violent action of a suspect. (1)   This is the one manner of death that we have direct control over. No, we can’t stop all heart attacks, but we can do everything in our power to prevent them. Exercise, diet, and cutting stress all play a big role in lowering your risks. Early detection and prevention both greatly reduce the chances of coronary artery disease.

In closing, our profession is an honorable one and we are the sheepdogs that protect the sheep from the wolves, but we can only do that if we are alive and healthy. It is on us to make sure that we maintain ourselves, both physically and mentally, and to keep that warrior mindset that keeps us and our LE family alive.

Stay safe, and watch your Six,

 

Paul S. Hahs Sr

President, MCLEA

1. Credit:  (Heart Disease and the Law Enforcement Officer By: Jonathan Sheinberg, MD, FACC Cedar Park Police Department)  http://www.copsalive.com/heart-disease-and-the-law-enforcement-officer/

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