Trooper Trap is an OFFICER SAFETY device, so how much is too much to save an officer's life?  Departments have said "we do not have any money" or "we have cages" to put off Trooper Trap.  Departments forget the huge liability that is sometimes wearing handcuffs and not always wearing a seatbelt.  Ask your a jury or your Risk Management department who is liable for these examples.

Departments have been sued and lost millions for:  
    1)  Not seatbelting prisoner or detainees in place and the prisoner or detainee was injured somehow.
    2)  Handcuffing or latching prisoner to fixed objects inside the vehicle and the prisoner died, unable to get out.
    3)  Prisoners who have escaped, stealing the patrol unit and struck other vehicles, officers, or people.
    4)  Drivers or passengers of traffic stop vehicles standing along side the road and struck by another vehicle.
    5)  Drivers or passengers of traffic stop vehicles sitting in patrol units not restrained and the patrol unit struck by a vehicle.
            
Officers and their spouses have sued and won for departments not having available all the safety devices on the market to protect their officers and the public.  Liability is not a threat, it is a reality of everyday life in public safety.  Grants are available for officer safety equipment like this.  These grants usually do not allow departments to pay officer salaries, but equipment only.  Protect yourself and your department with a $195.00 investment in your officer's life, your department's fleet, and the public you have the responsibility of serving and protecting.

Let's use the airline industry as an example about automated external defibrillator (AED):
An evolving legal trend may ultimately lead to higher risks for businesses that fail to purchase and use AEDs.

In 1996, a jury found an airline negligent for not properly training its employees to provide emergency care and for failing to have essential medical equipment, including a defibrillator, on the premises. The jury awarded the plaintiff $500,000 in damages for the resulting death of her 13-year-old daughter.

In another case, a federal judge found another airline negligent for failing to timely provide treatment for a passenger suffering a cardiac emergency and awarded $2.7 million in damages. In light of this case and a variety of other factors, the Federal Aviation Administration is currently considering the mandatory deployment of AEDs on all commercial aircraft.

Related Story #1   Related Story #2   Related Story #3

DUI driver's family sues over her escape, in which she died
July 20th, 2006    The Plain Dealer    Story Link
kfarkas@plaind.com, 800-628-6689
The family of a woman stopped for drunken driving who was hit and killed by a car on the Ohio Turnpike after escaping from a State Highway Patrol cruiser has sued the agency for failing to lock the car doors.  A handcuffed Francina Pugh of Cleveland was running free in the dark before the trooper driving back to his post even realized she was missing, the claim states.  Pugh's family seeks more than $25,000 in its wrongful death case in the Ohio Court of Claims.  The wrongful-death claim was filed July 12 by Pugh's sister, Miriam Gilliam of Richmond Heights. Pugh is also survived by a son, Curtis, 24, and her mother. They and their attorney would not comment Wednesday.  On June 20, Turner was disciplined and suspended for three days, according to the patrol.

UPDATE:
August 22nd, 2007     The Columbus Dispatch     Story Link
The state has agreed to pay $350,000 to the estate of a woman pulled over for suspected drunken driving then killed along the Ohio Turnpike after she escaped from a trooper's vehicle.  The Trooper lost sight of the prisoner  for up to 10 minutes while he searched her car and talked with a tow truck operator.  She escaped and was hit by several cars not far from where she was stopped for erratic driving.  Her body was severed and her skull crushed.  “Obviously this is an unfortunate and tragic incident and our best counsel to the patrol was to settle the case.  The state argued in court papers that while the Trooper made mistakes, he did not intentionally seek to harm the prisoner, who had a blood-alcohol level of 0.23 percent, nearly three times the state limit.  While the patrol rejects being responsible for the prisoner's death, the agency has revamped its training procedures. Troopers now are trained first in the academy, not in the field, on how to handle prisoners in custody. They have to retrain every three years.  The Trooper received a one-day suspension and remains employed.

Sheriff to pay bills for escape
Associated Press
01-26-06  Billings Gazette  Story Link
GREAT FALLS - Cascade County Sheriff David Castle said Wednesday he plans to pay Lewis and Clark County the full $18,500 it asked for to cover costs associated with capturing an inmate who escaped from a prison transport van.  Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Cheryl Leidle called for the reimbursement earlier this week, saying the Cascade County sheriff's department needed to be held accountable. Her bill included $12,458 for her deputies' time, $702 for the county commissioners' time, $609 for the county's disaster and emergency services personnel time and $4,160 for the Helena Police Department's time.  Leidle said she'd be willing to negotiate, but Castle agreed Wednesday to pay the bill in full.  "I don't want them to be burdened with anything," he said.  Leidle said she's grateful.  "I said all along, this is something we expected to negotiate," she said. "I'm not here to break the bank. I just want to make sure the taxpayers in our county are repaid."  The Montana Highway Patrol also will bill Cascade County when it finishes calculating expenses, Lt. Col. Mike Tooley said. The patrol will not bill the county for the eight hours a helicopter searched the Helena Valley, but it will charge Cascade County for overtime costs, he said.  "We are going to try and be fair about this," Tooley added. "We don't think it will be a lot."  The bills stem from the Jan. 11 escape of inmate Dueston Haggard from a prison transport van just north of Helena. He was arrested about 15 hours after his escape, which wasn't noticed until the van taking inmates from Great Falls to Deer Lodge arrived at its destination.  Haggard, 28, was being transported to prison to serve a 40-year sentence for burglary, but he is also facing murder charges.  He was arrested at a Helena motel after authorities traced calls he made to family members.  Investigators determined that Haggard used a key that was hidden in his shoe to unlock his shackles and that Cascade County Regional Jail employees had ignored proper procedure by failing to strip-search the 11 inmates before they boarded the van.

Pennsylvania - Prisoner escape and stolen police car.

Seatbelt Prisoners - Canada - February 24, 2005 - A RCMP Officer was found guilty of careless driving in a wreck that killed a prisoner being transported without a seatbelt in the back seat of a patrol car. 
  03-10-2004  Original Story Link   
  11-04-2005  Updated Story   
  11-15-2005  RCMP told to review seatbelt policy