View from the Street * July 2014

“The Emperor’s New Clothes” - An 1837 story by Hans Christian Andersen. An emperor hires two tailors who promise to make him a set of remarkable new clothes that will be invisible to anyone who is either incompetent or stupid. When the emperor goes to see his new clothes, he sees nothing at all — for the tailors are swindlers and there aren’t any clothes. Afraid of being judged incompetent or stupid, the emperor pretends to be delighted with the new clothes and “wears” them in a grand parade through the town. Everyone else also pretends to see them, until a child yells out, “He hasn’t got any clothes on!” People who point out the emptiness of the pretensions of powerful people and institutions are often compared to the child who says that the emperor has no clothes.

So my question for YOU? Does your Agency/City/County/State/Business operate using National BEST Safety Practices? If not, why not? A line of duty death costs families their loved ones and lost family income, and employers lose a well-trained employee, costing over $1,000,000.

National Best Safety Practices

- TIM Network http://timnetwork.org/
- FHWA Traffic Incident Management http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/eto_tim_pse/about/tim.htm
- Responder Safety Learning Network http://learning.respondersafety.com/
- Fire Learning Network http://www.fireherolearningnetwork.com/
- IACP * Officer Safety http://www.theiacp.org/CenterforOfficerSafetyandWellness
- Towing and Recovery Association of America http://www.towserver.net/
- Safe Highways http://www.safehighways.org/
- TIM NETWORK Facebook National Traffic Incident Management Coalition
- IAFF Health, Safety, Medicine http://www.iaff.org/hs/index.htm
- NFPA 1500 Health and Safety http://www.vfis.com/documents/NFPA1500.pdf
- VFIS http://www.vfis.com/additional-materials-downloads.htm