Casteel, Michael

Dawes, Jay

Honea, Coleman

Kollock, Roger

Lockie, Robert G.

Orr, Rob Marc

Stahl, Cody

English

Musculoskeletal injuries sustained by law enforcement officers (LEOs) can result from a variety of occupational situations and circumstances. These injuries can result in decreased physical abilities, impact an officer’s ability to serve their communities, and may come with notable financial costs to the department. Profiling LEO musculoskeletal injuries is a necessary initial step for developing and implementing musculoskeletal injury mitigation strategies. PURPOSE: To profile musculoskeletal injuries sustained by LEOs from one agency and identify injury patterns to inform mitigation strategies. METHODS: Retrospective injury data from a local law enforcement agency spanning a period of four-years were examined. Reported injuries were grouped into musculoskeletal or non-musculoskeletal. The musculoskeletal injuries were further broken into anatomical sites. The data were examined based on common anatomical sites of musculoskeletal injuries. Descriptive statistics (i.e. frequency and percentage) were utilized to profile the data. RESULTS: Across the four-year time period, a total of 39 injuries were reported. Of these, 66% (n=26) were musculoskeletal. Three body areas accounted for approximately half of all reported injuries: shoulder (15%, n=6), knee/quad (15%, n=6), and hand/wrist (18%, n=7). CONCLUSION: Injury prevention strategies should focus on mitigating injuries in the shoulder, knee, and hand. This injury profile is able to provide important information to aid in reducing the injury occurrence; thus, helping to maintain the operational ability of the individual officer and department as a whole. Injury prevention strategies should include integration of corrective activities and defensive tactics into occupation specific strength and conditioning programs

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Bond UniversityResearch RepositoryInjury Profiles Of Police Officers From A Local Law Enforcement AgencyHonea, Coleman; Stahl, Cody; Orr, Rob Marc; Lockie, Robert G.; Kollock, Roger; Casteel,Michael; Dawes, JayPublished: 25/10/2019Document Version:Peer reviewed versionLink to publication in Bond University research repository.Recommended citation(APA):Honea, C., Stahl, C., Orr, R. M., Lockie, R. G., Kollock, R., Casteel, M., & Dawes, J. (2019). Injury Profiles OfPolice Officers From A Local Law Enforcement Agency. Poster session presented at American College of SportsMedicine Central States Annual Meeting, Broken Arrow, United States.General rightsCopyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright ownersand it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.For more information, or if you believe that this document breaches copyright, please contact the Bond University research repositorycoordinator.Download date: 05 Dec 2019Archived records of injuries occurring between January of 2016and August of 2019 from one local law enforcement agency werereviewed to determine the most common type and frequency ofmusculoskeletal injuries that occurred. Injury data were firstgrouped into musculoskeletal and non-musculoskeletal injuries bydetermining the nature and mechanism of the injury. The term“Musculoskeletal” was defined as anything related to the muscularor skeletal system such as joints, ligaments, muscles, bones,tendons, etc. Additionally, the data was limited to occurrences inwhich the proximate cause of the injury was unrelated to blunt forcetrauma (i.e., car crash, gunshot wound, being struck with animplement, or battery). In order to further analyze the data theinjuries were then broken down further by labeling them byanatomical sites. After separating the data into anatomical groupsthe furthering results were then profiled by the use of DescriptiveStatistics (e.g., percentages, ratios, and frequencies.)AbstractINJURY PROFILES OF POLICE OFFICERS FROM A LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY  Coleman Honea1, Cody A. Stahl1, Robin M. Orr2, Robert G. Lockie3, Roger Kollock4, Micheal D. Casteel5, J. Jay Dawes11Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA; 2Bond University- Tactical Research Unit, Robina, QLD, ASU; 3 California State University Fullerton, CA, USA; 4University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK, USA; 5Stillwater Police Department, Stillwater, OK, USAMusculoskeletal injuries sustained by law enforcement officers (LEOs) can result from a variety of occupational situations and circumstances. These injuries can result in decreased physical abilities, impact an officer’s ability to serve their communities, and may come with notable financial costs to the department. Profiling LEO musculoskeletal injuries is a necessary initial step for developing and implementing musculoskeletal injury mitigation strategies. PURPOSE: To profile musculoskeletal injuries sustained by LEOs from one agency and identify injury patterns to inform mitigation strategies. METHODS: Retrospective injury data from a local law enforcement agency spanning a period of four-years were examined. Reported injuries were grouped into musculoskeletal or non-musculoskeletal. The musculoskeletal injuries were further broken into anatomical sites. The data were examined based on common anatomical sites of musculoskeletal injuries. Descriptive statistics (i.e. frequency and percentage) were utilized to profile the data. RESULTS: Across the four-year time period, a total of 39 injuries were reported. Of these, 66% (n=26) were musculoskeletal. Three body areas accounted for approximately half of all reported injuries: shoulder (15%, n=6), knee/quad (15%, n=6), and hand/wrist (18%, n=7). CONCLUSION: Injury prevention strategies should focus on mitigating injuries in the shoulder, knee, and hand. This injury profile is able to provide important information to aid in reducing the injury occurrence; thus, helping to maintain the operational ability of the individual officer and department as a whole. Injury prevention strategies should include integration of corrective activities and defensive tactics into occupation specific strength and conditioning programs. IntroductionMethodsResultsDiscussionAs part of their essential job duties law enforcement officers(LEOs) may be required to perform a variety of physically demandtasks. These tasks may include sprinting, lifting heavy objects,jumping and climbing over barriers and performing defensive tacticsand arrest control techniques. Ironically, officers may also spend alarge portion of their time on duty engaged in sedentary behavior(e.g., writing reports, sitting in a car, driving, etc.). Based on theserequirements, officers may be prone to a variety of acute andchronic injuries. These injuries can create a significant financial andstaffing burden to law enforcement agencies. It is crucial that lawenforcement agencies take proactive measures to keep their officershealthy to make certain they are able to perform their occupationalduties safely and effectively.Purpose: To determine the type and frequency of musculoskeletalinjuries sustained in one local US based law enforcement agency.References• Within the near four-year time period there were a total of 39 injuries sustained to police officers while on duty. The injuries were evaluated and it was determined that 67% were musculoskeletal. (n=26)• Injury classification in order of frequency were Wrist/Hand (26.9% n=7), Shoulder (23.1% n=6), Knee/Quad (23.1% n=6), Foot/Ankle (15.4% n=4), Elbow (7.7%  n=2), and Neck (3.8% n=1) (Figure 1). 1. Irving, S., Orr, R., & Pope, R. Profiling the Occupational Tasks and Physical Conditioning of  Specialist Police. International journal of exercise science, 2019. 12(3), 173–186.2. Orr, R., Pope, R., Peterson, S., Hinton, B., & Stierli, M. Leg Power As an Indicator of Risk of Injury or Illness in Police Recruits. Introductory Journal of Environmental Res. Public Health 2016, 13(2), 237.3. Hootman, J.M., Macera, C.A., Ainsworth, B.E., Addy, C.L., Martin, M., and Blair, S.N.  Epidemiology of musculoskeletal injuries among sedentary and physically active adults. Medicine and science in sports science. 2002. 35(1), 183.• Injuries can result in decreased physical abilities, impact an officer’s ability to serve their communities, and may come with notable financial costs to the department. • This investigation sought to profile musculoskeletal injuries sustained by LEO’s initial step for developing and implementing musculoskeletal injury mitigation strategies. • Our study concluded that the most commonly injured areas include the three most injured areas included the wrist/hand, shoulder, and knee/quad. • Similar injury profiles have been reported in other investigations involving LEOs (1-3)• Screening for potential injuries via the use of movement assessments (i.e., Functional Movement Screen) may be useful in reducing musculoskeletal injures within this population. • Developing strength and conditioning programs aimed at developing strength, mobility and flexibility to areas commonly injured may help mitigate or reduce the severity of these types of musculoskeletal injuries within these populations.Results (Cont.)Figure 1: Percentage of Injuries by location Figure 2: Frequency of Injuries by anatomical location 

Injury Profiles Of Police Officers From A Local Law Enforcement Agency

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Injury Profiles Of Police Officers From A Local Law Enforcement Agency

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