28 AMERICAN POLICE BEAT: JULY 2017 General Officer Safety Award Winner – Suffolk County (NY) Police Department Officer Traffic Safety Award Winner – Snohomish County (WA) Sheriffs Office Comprehensive Safety Award Winner – Burlington (NC) Police Department 2017 Officer Wellness Award Winner – Stockton (CA) Police Department Lauding the Top Officer Wellness & Safety Programs F or the third year, the National Law Enforcement Of- ficers Memorial Fund, in partner- ship with the U.S. Depart- ment of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and BJA’s VALOR officer safety initiative, collabo- rated on the “Destination Zero Program” to highlight agency-level achievements in the areas of officer safety and wellness. The primary goal of the program is to create a plat- form that provides all U.S. law enforcement agencies with the ability to research successful and/or promis- ing officer safety and well- ness programs and identify the resources necessary to begin their own risk man- agement initiatives. The National Offi- cer Safety and Wellness Awards were at the Na- tional Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund’s annual Awards Dinner on Sunday, May 14 during Police Week. The Destination Zero Program began in late 2014, with a goal to identify agen- cies conducting unique and innovative programs aimed to reduce risk factors and to share the design and out- comes of these programs with the entire law enforce- ment community. Agencies with success- ful programs were asked to submit details of their initiatives and be consid- ered for the National Of- ficer Safety and Wellness Awards, which will be pre- sented during National Po- lice Week in Washington, D.C. There was also a national open call for applications though an online applica- tion process. Following months of re- view and evaluation of the submitted programs, the award process selected 11 finalist agencies whose respective program fell into one of the four officer safety and wellness award categories. The National Law En- forcement Officers Me- morial Fund convened a distinguished panel of judges to evaluate the final- ist programs. A seven-member selec- tion committee, represent- ing nearly every type of law enforcement agency, carefully considered each finalist program and se- lected the award recipi- ents for each of the four categories. In addition to the four winning agencies, the following finalists were also acknowledged: Officer Safety: Henderson (NV) Police Department, Officer Traffic Safety: Las Vegas (NV) Metropolitan Police Department, Officer Well- ness: Rockville (MD) Police Department, Sidney (OH) Police Department and the Wisconsin Department of Justice, Comprehensive Safety: City of Bend (OR) Police Department and the University of Vermont Police Department. 2 208 AGENCIES K KEEPING OREGON SAFE W WWW.OREGONPOLICEJOBS.COM O ONE TEAM • ONE MISSION WWW.OREGONPOLICEJOBS.COM