ALEA Safety First Program Newsletters
March 2006
Keith Johnson
Safety Program Manager
DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY – GRANT FUNDING
 I have received several inquiries about how
to obtain grant funding from the Department
of Homeland Security. If you need
information on how to apply for funding I
suggest you go online and
download the guide
book that takes you through the application
process. For those of you that are in
“High-Risk” areas, DHS has stated that it
will shift more anti-terrorism funds to
regions that are identified as likely
targets. For those of you who have been
successful receiving grant funds, send me
your success story and I will publish it so
others learn from your success.
LAW ENFORCEMENT AVIATION ACCIDENT SUMMARY
 I have completed recapping the 2005 law
enforcement aviation accidents. First, let
me congratulate all of you that did not have
an accident in 2005. While we have much to
do to eliminate accidents, 2005 was the best
year in recent history with only 11
accidents. I have completed a summary of all
law enforcement accidents beginning with
1999.
ALEA members can download the entire
report in PDF format.
Page-1 consists of a summary of the
accidents by causal factors. Loss of control
made up 40 of 109 accidents. Nothing new.
There were many more actual “loss of
control” accidents. I categorized them under
different names i.e. autorotation,
hydraulics off and tail rotor failure
training, and disorientation. If you add
them all up, 63 of 109 were due to loss of
control.
Almost 10% of our accidents occur doing
emergency procedure training. I strongly
urge you to contract this training if you
don’t have an experienced CFI with lots of
time teaching emergency procedures. It’s
much cheaper than having to replace or
repair an aircraft. I recommend that CFI’s
have a minimum of 2,000 hours of helicopter
time, and 500 hours of instruction time. I
emphasize “minimum.” This won’t be enough
for many of us. We need to be realistic
about our flying skills. Most of us tend to
over rate our skills.
At the risk of repeating myself, we pilots
need to focus more on our flying. It is
clear that many of us are being distracted
from our primary duty, flying the aircraft
safely. We can’t support the ground troops
if we wreck our aircraft. Remember – Safety
First.
ANNUAL CONFERENCE TRAINING
 The 2006 ALEA Conference is almost upon us.
Jim DiGiovanna, Education Program Manager
has put together a great program again this
year. For those of you that are unit
managers, commanding officers,
officer-in-charge of your aviation program,
ALEA is offering a great deal again this
year. The first 50 people to register for
the Aviation Unit Manager Course will attend
for free, plus your conference registration
fee will be waived as well. Don’t miss this
opportunity to hear from a group of the most
experienced subject matter experts on how to
manage an aviation unit.
SAFETY LEADERSHIP
 Safety is the most important issue in
managing an aviation unit. The “safety
culture” of the unit is measured by
compliance with standards relating to
safety, operations and training. Safety is a
function of management effectiveness. Safety
is the most important issue facing a unit
manager. It is reflected in SOP’s, actions
by supervisors, and the willingness to abort
missions when the risks outweigh the benefit
of completing the mission. A suspect lost
today will be caught tomorrow. The need to
capture a suspect is never worth a police
officer’s life. His/her leadership sets the
tone for the aviation program.
Leadership failure and a
poor safety culture are reflected in most
police aviation accidents. This is true for
large and small departments. It is evident
in high profile organizations such as NASA.
In the wake of the Columbia accident, 11
managers were demoted, and the chief
resigned.
Eighty-one seconds into
flight 3 blocks of foam broke off of the
fuel tank and struck the left wing of the
orbiter. Two cameras, one at Cape Canaveral
and one at Cocoa Beach captured the strike.
Photo analysts asked for permission to
enhance the video, but were denied. For
eight days different groups of debris
analysts lobbied shuttle managers for
permission to inspect the wing using Defense
Department satellites. Managers blocked the
requests. Worried engineers could not bring
themselves to break the chain of command.
The accident investigation commission placed
the blame squarely on NASA’s management.
Management had felt the need to take the
flight to keep the momentum of the program
going, even after the Challenger accident.
Does this sound familiar. Too often in law
enforcement we become too mission focused.
It happened to NASA, and it can happen to
you. Leaders need to stand up and call a
timeout when things don’t feel right. If it
doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t right.
Your decisions will not always be popular.
Listen to your gut, and do the right thing,
the first time, every time. Your peoples’
lives depend on you.
Hope to see you in New Orleans.
Remember – Safety First!
Keith
Keith Johnson
Safety Program Manager
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