My friends I am concerned that people within the public safety world are just not getting our message. Those of us here at Respondersafety.com have been laboring valiantly to create a repository for the best possible highway safety practices. Frankly, we are all quite tired of police, fire, and EMS being killed on our highways.

We push the issues which have been killing people since the first time that a goat herder was struck by a passing Chariot from the Roman Legion. People often get killed because they do not follow the rules. The problem is that no one has come out and said what the rules are. Sadly they die following a rule that is patently unsafe.

Each of us has been motivated by basic emotion: empathy. Each of us has experienced the loss of a friend, colleague, or co-worker. In many cases they were killed by people who just did not care for our safety. These people see each of us who operates out there on the highway as an obstacle on their self-absorbed road to wherever in the heck it is that they are speeding.

People have died. People have been horribly injured for no other reason then they happened to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. However there is another factor at work in many cases. People have been killed because they were conducting unsafe practices sanctioned if not just flat out ordered by the organization they work for.

Responders have been killed out on our highways just because they were ordered to do things in the same tired old way that they had always done them. People have been killed because their agencies have failed to update the equipment and procedures which might have saved a life.

The latest example of this comes from Maryland. Last week a Howard County police officer died when he was struck and mortally injured while performed a "step out and stop" operation. It was like any other public safety death, a tragic loss for the family and for the department. What makes it worse it did not have to happen.

The police officer died from injuries he sustained after he was struck by a car he tried to pull over for speeding Saturday afternoon, authorities said. Howard police said Pfc. Scott Wheeler, a 6 1/2-year veteran, was working a speed enforcement detail on Route 32 near U.S. 1 when he and two other officers tried to stop a speeding motorist at about 2 p.m.

It was reported by police the car's driver was suspected of speeding. Wheeler was assigned to step out in the road to flag down cars that other officers using radar had targeted for a traffic violation. It is believed by investigators that the driver did not see the officer before he was struck.

If you are like me, you have seen police officers performing this same type of operation for years now. Haven’t you wondered why an officer of the law who routinely is called upon to risk his life to protect the public would be trying to stop a 3000 pound car by stepping out in front of it?

It is hard to fathom that a public safety organization could knowingly place their people in such a dangerous situation for a measly traffic citation? Are there not many more ways to ensure drivers obey the speed limit without risking the life of a dedicated police officer?

Let me share a statement from a spokesman for the Maryland State Police which appeared in the media not too long after the Howard County Police Department halted their step-out efforts for a period of protracted investigation. In an article published on Capitol-Online, that spokesman stated that the Maryland State Police have no plans to discontinue step-out speed traps in light of last week's accident. "We haven't had any problems. We've been trained to do it," said Sgt. Arthur Betts, a state police spokesman.

But according to the Baltimore Sun on June 19, 2007: 'Although data does not exist on the number of officers killed while "stepping out" into traffic, 120 law-enforcement officers standing on roadways died after being struck by vehicles in a 10-year period from January 1995 to December 2004, according to FBI statistics. That averages out to one death a month.'

I guess someone at State Police Headquarters took a look at the paper, because on Monday June 25, there was a change of policy. News reports on the radio station WBAL.com website had the following headline, "State Police Halt Step Out Patrols." Just like the old song says, "What a difference a day makes, twenty-four little hours."

Apparently one of the first priorities of MD State Police Colonel Terry Sheridan tackled when he took office a few weeks ago was a review of this very policy. Sheridan was concerned about the safety of troopers and drivers. According to the WBAL website, "he actually issued the order late Friday and had several conversations with troopers about the issue while many of them attended the funeral for Howard County Cpl Scott Wheeler.

Sheridan is still looking into whether or not the procedure will be used by troopers working some of the lesser traveled roads or those roads where the speed limit is around 40 or 45 miles per hour." Bravo Colonel Sheridan. You have done a very good thing. You have changed the culture of the Maryland State Police.

Hopefully other leaders in law enforcement whose department embrace this dangerous practice will have the same intestinal fortitude as the good Colonel. Now finish the job and end the practice completely. Ordering officers to step out in front of car driving at 40 mph entirely too risky.

There were a number of highway-related problems which I encountered back in the good old days when I was serving as the chief for Battalion Five in the City of Newark, New Jersey. My battalion covered the New Jersey Turnpike and Interstate Highway 78 in the eastern part of the city.

As a chief fire officer I was always concerned about the safety of the members of my department especially on the highways. My logic was quite simple. I was going to be damned if I had to tell some firefighter’s family that he died on the highway at the scene of a minor traffic incident.

We have come to learn that many of the sanctioned practices that we perform are unsafe, were always unsafe and will remain unsafe until we change them. Sad to say, many unsafe practices are in effect in far too many places. Brave fire, police, and EMS folks are being placed at risk because of an organizational comfort zone that says “Why change? We’ve always done it this way.

There you have it my friends. That is my opinion. Watch out for your own butt. All of the sincerity and explanation in the world cannot counter the effects of flawed organizational policy. There is no special protective shield to keep the cars from hitting us.

Do the right thing. Train your people. Make them wear high visibility vests. Get on and off of the highway as quickly and safely as possible. Above all, do not make fun of people who preach safety. They might be like me. They just might be tired of going to line of duty funerals for people killed on the highways and byways of the world. Please.

Our deepest sympathies are extended to Officer Wheeler’s family and the men and women of the Howard County MD Police Department.