DEDICATION These Guidelines are Dedicated to the Prevention of Injuries and Death of Law Enforcement Officers Who Put Their Lives on the Line Every Day Table of Contents Dedication Foreword Preface About The Guide Goals and Philosophy Statement Acknowledgments Chapter 1 - Establishing a Driver Training Process This chapter describes a four step process resulting in a comprehensive driving program and provides a summary of where the information required for the four step process can be found in the guide. Chapter 2 - Management of Emergency Vehicle Operational Risks This chapter discusses risk management for emergency, non-emergency and pursuit driving. Its purpose is to provide insight into the various legal theories which may come into play in any law enforcement driving situation. Chapter 3 - Emergency Vehicle Driving and Policy This chapter discusses the IACP pursuit policy and considerations as well as factors involved in developing a driving policy and how it relates to driver training. Chapter 4 - Instructor Qualifications This chapter identifies the knowledge, skills, and abilities for a driver training instructor as well as basic duties and responsibilities of key personnel assigned to a driver program. Chapter 5 - Facilities and Staffing This chapter discusses general concepts and considerations that should be taken into account when developing a driver training facility. Provided are details regarding temporary and dedicated facilities, staffing, basic equipment, and range safety rules. Chapter 6 - Emergency Vehicle Driving Curriculum Guidelines This chapter provides law enforcement agencies and standards-setting organizations with suggestions for designing a law enforcement driver training curriculum that meets their respective state or local needs. Module 1 - Legal Aspects of Law Enforcement Driving Module 2 - Non-Emergency Driving Module 3 - Emergency Response Driving Module 4 - Pursuit Driving Chapter 7 - Testing and Performance Evaluation This chapter provides law enforcement standard-setting and operational organizations with information to assist in the development of standardized individual assessments of operation proficiency levels. The material in this chapter can help in evaluating both knowledge and skill acquisition. Chapter 8 - Validating a Driver Training Program This chapter is directed toward the development of methods and processes for evaluating driver proficiency. Appendix A - Emergency Vehicle Glossary and Instructional Terminology Appendix B - Emergency Exemption Provisions Listed by State Appendix C - Case Law Regarding Police Liability for Fleeing Suspect’s Collision with Innocent Bystanders Appendix D - Instructional Methodologies and Learning Activities to Include Sample Test Questions Appendix E - Practical Exercise Examples and Evaluation Criteria Appendix F - Resource Materials Appendix G - Instructional Aids FORWARD If you ask officers on foot patrol to name the most dangerous part of their assignment, they are likely to say it’s entering a dark alley to the sound of breaking glass. First responders might rank domestic violence or bar fights as the most dangerous. If you put the same question to tactical operations officers they will say it’s serving a high-risk warrant. Narcotics detectives will name the undercover buy as the most dangerous assignment; or perhaps the raid on a supplier. But if you ask any of these officers to name the most dangerous part of the job for all law enforcement officers, regardless of assignment, their unanimous response would be…operation of the patrol vehicle. Whether it’s a high speed pursuit or response to a felony-in-progress call for service, or answering an emergency assist call from a fellow officer, or cruising the beat in a crime prevention mode; operation of the police vehicle is dangerous. Simply stated, the car is a tool. It was designed to transport law enforcement officers and some varying amount of support equipment to their assigned duties. In general, the operation of the police car is consistent with the operation of any civilian automobile. There are, however, a few but dramatic differences. As a sworn law enforcement officer, the operator of the police vehicle must necessarily multi-task. Sensors and senses are working. Listening to dispatched calls for service is not an option, it’s a requirement. Talking into the portable radio while driving is an expected operational skill. Thinking, planning, and strategizing while maneuvering through traffic is a must. Scanning and assessing homes, businesses, parked cars and other motorists, as well as pedestrians, are essential tasks to patrol work. Add to this cacophony the motoring environment which includes the uncontrollable choreography of other drivers, road conditions, weather, and the motivation and emotional state of the officer, and you have a stage set for disaster that is averted only by the extraordinary driving skills of the officer- operator. Every police academy knows how critical driver training is to the training curriculum. In an effort to ensure this training has the very best information, the best practices, and the best instructional strategies, the U. S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training (IADLEST) have worked collaboratively to produce the Law Enforcement Driver Training Reference Guide. The 2007 edition is the forth iteration of this material since 1986. Each successive edition has been researched and updated to ensure the fundamentals are still sound and the enhancements are cutting edge. It is our hope and our intention that you will use this manual to enhance your training programs and, by doing so, the driving skills of your students. The partnership between IADLEST and NHTSA, and by extension all of the law enforcement driver trainers across the country, is built on our mutual dedication to ensure the safety of our law enforcement officers, the motoring public and our communities. It is a partnership in which we can all take pride. Patrick L. Bradley President, IADLEST Preface Law enforcement in America has come to realize that the cooperation of the public is an essential ingredient in meaningful and effective efforts to reduce crime and to improve public safety. Exciting new programs in community policing, problem-oriented policing, and other innovations have shown the value of community confidence in their law enforcement agencies. Enhanced community confidence leads to better financial support, better cooperation during enforcement activities, and a better sense of well-being for citizens, and most importantly, reduced levels of crime. Community confidence extends to officer competence, as well. As community members come to know "their" officers better, they also develop a fairly good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of their officers. One of the most visible and publicized activities of the police is driving, especially emergency vehicle operation and pursuits. It is important to provide a message to the public that their officers are as competent and well-managed in this critical activity as they are in the more traditional areas of firearms, arrest procedures, etc. Professional law enforcement leaders now realize that driving is certainly as dangerous as, and probably more dangerous than the use of firearms and control tactics. While data is presently not available, informed law enforcement leaders will admit that about one-fourth to one-third of officer fatalities occur in motor-vehicle crashes. The cost of law enforcement crashes is high indeed, not only in property loss, but in fatalities and injuries. I know only too well the high cost of the lack of training. While driving home one evening, my first wife and 2-year old daughter were killed and my 4-year old daughter was critically injured after being struck broadside by a patrol unit that ran a stop sign at 100 mph while pursing a speeding motorcycle in a residential neighborhood. They became innocent victims of a law enforcement pursuit involving a law enforcement officer who had not been trained in law enforcement driving. It is reasonable to expect officers to receive as much training with emergency vehicle and pursuit driving as they do with the use of issued firearms and other weapons. While this seems logical, with few exceptions it rarely occurs. Often we hear opposition to additional police driver training, noting that it is too expensive, unnecessary, the facilities do not exist, etc. Veteran police officers have experienced first-hand the cost associated with vehicle crashes, including those involving fellow officers. Good and recurrent training is necessary. Good training is not too costly. Most professionals in risk management would argue that it is too costly not to provide good and periodic vehicle training! This Guide points out that good training can be provided in small areas, it can be tailored to existing facilities and conditions, and it must compliment established departmental policy. It is not necessary to invest in expensive high-speed tracks in order to provide useful and effective training. While such tracks are a wonderful resource, there are simply not enough of them to provide the frequency of training required. We must provide training, then, in the types of facilities commonly available, i.e., parking lots, airports, wide roadways, etc. This Guide can be used by all sizes and types of law enforcement agencies to develop