Call the Cops The 27th Most Trusted Site in Public Safety
In response to the numbers of officers who are hit by cars, or have close calls, on traffic stops, the DOJ has issued a new mandate. Patrol officers will be adding an Army staple to police uniform, PT Belts.
Police officer in new PT Belt
Lt. Segen of the Illinois State Police is the originator of this idea. Lt. Segen is also a First Lieutenant in the Illinois National Guard. In 2009 he was deployed with the 178th Infantry to Afghanistan.
“So there I was watching all these big military vehicles cruising around base and all this men and women walking around. I never saw a person on foot get hit. The it dawned on me, no one got hit because we always had on these reflective yellow belts.”
Lt. Segen said when he first saw the reflective belts while at Officer Candidacy School, he felt it was some joke. He figured someone was hazing the new recruits into putting on these dumb looking strips of shiny plastic. But soon enough he saw it was no joke, everyone had them on.
Upon returning from Afghanistan he drafted a memo asking to have PT belts tested as part of the Illinois State Police uniform. “We lose a lot of people to being hit by cars on traffic stops, and any calls that involve officers standing close to the roadway. If these silly belts can keep a Army private from getting hit by a tank, I think they could keep our officers safe from cars.”
Administration at the Illinois State Police were not convinced. They did however allowed Lt. Segen to run a pilot test. The results of the pilot test showed promise, but the administration was still not convinced.
“I reached out to members of my national guard unit who are police officers at other departments. I asked them to also run pilot tests. These tests got the same results. My administration then asked that I come present at the State Police Chief’s Convention. After that Convention some guys from DC asked me to come out and talk to them.”
The DOJ conducted a few tests in various states and found positive results.
A spokes person for the DOJ told us this. “We realize that the DOJ can’t impose policy on police agencies. But what we can do is tie compliance with our recommendations to Grant fundings. Any chief wants to get Federal Grant money form the DOJ, he will have to have his patrol officers in PT Belts.”
