Law Enforcement Injuries

he public gets its ideas about what it’s like to work in law enforcement from television. To keep us entertained and stop us from switching the channel, everything on TV is very dramatic, including when a law enforcement officer is injured. When is the last time you watched a crime drama in which an officer was injured because he slipped on the ice or was involved in a simple car accident (not while driving 100 miles an hour chasing a suspect)?

This topic is covered very well in a blog on the Law Enforcement Today website written by a 30-year veteran of the Chicago Police Department, Lt. Robert Weisskopf. In the blog, he describes an interview he did with a college student majoring in criminal justice who was planning on working in law enforcement after he graduated. Also present at the interview were the student’s parents, who had concerns about their son staying safe on the job. The father asked Officer Weisskopf if he’d ever been seriously injured on the job.

I believe he meant have I ever been shot or stabbed… Everyone assumes that the only way an officer gets injured is being shot, stabbed, or beaten. The truth is far from that. Some of us do get injured or killed by an offender actively attacking, but police officers are far more likely to be injured in a much more mundane way.

I had to tell them that yes I had been seriously injured. I was broadsided in a rollover squad car accident. I broke several ribs, dislocated my shoulder and ruptured my spleen. I told them we are far more likely to be injured in a car accident or while climbing a rickety staircase or slipping on the ice.

Officers have a much better chance of a back injury from lifting a passive resister or pushing a stuck squad car than chasing after bad guys. We can be exposed to chemical fumes while downwind directing traffic at a warehouse fire only to find out years later that it may have been the cause of cancer you are now suffering from. Officers get blood-borne pathogens and bodily fluids splashed, spit and sprayed on us even though we take every precaution short of a hazmat suit.

Lt. Weisskopf went on to say that officers, once they got past their feelings of invincibility when they started the job, see injuries as inevitable, like someone working in the construction trades.

(W)hen you spend at least eight hours driving, racing to calls, in bad traffic and weather you are bound to have accidents. When you have to search abandoned buildings for missing children you are going to have to watch for collapsing staircases. It is our job. We come to expect it and seldom think twice about it.

He states this reality needs to be taught in police academies and that while officers who are shot or stabbed in the line of duty receive strong support, that support is often lacking after a more “normal” injury or series of injuries results in an officer being too injured to go back on duty.

Contact the Attorneys at Uliase & Uliase

If you’re a federal employee working in law enforcement who has been injured on the job, whether it was caused by a dramatic event or during just another day on duty, we may be able to help you obtain compensation for your injuries.

At Uliase & Uliase, we have a thorough understanding of the federal workers’ compensation laws. If you have been hurt on the job and want to schedule an appointment, contact our office online or call us at (856) 310-9002. We will meet with you weekdays between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. We offer a free consultation for injured workers.