Safety equipment a focus for Lt. Col.

By KEVIN YOUNG

GLASGOW — Glasgow Police Lt. Col. James Duff knows the benefits that having the latest safety equipment could offer law enforcement officers in the line of duty. Duff was shot while responding to a call in 2002, and many of the shotgun pellets from the incident still remain lodged in his back more than seven years later. With the protection of his Kevlar vest, Duff can tell his story today and further work to get the latest safety technology for the Glasgow Police Department.

He was selected to attend the Rural Law Enforcement Technology Institute in Coronado, Calif. last week where he spoke to a group of approximately 40 officers from across the country about the importance of in-car cameras in police cruisers. Currently two of the Glasgow Police Department’s 16 cruisers are equipped with in-car cameras, but Duff hopes the department will completely outfit the rest with grant funding.

“The main thing is officer safety when you have that in-car camera out there recording, it’s a big plus. They are also a great supervisory tool to always make sure officers are being courteous and following department policy when they are making their stops,” he said.

The symposium was hosted by the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs National Institute of Justice and the Rural Law Enforcement Technology Center, which paid for all of Duff’s expenses to attend. Duff, 47, was the only officer from Kentucky selected to attend.

The institute is designed for the command staff and supervisory personnel of rural and small law enforcement agencies containing less than 50 sworn officers. Attendees learned about technology initiatives and issues affecting the rural and small law enforcement community, he said.

“I found that other departments are facing the same issues that we encounter and that there are some good solutions out there that are reasonable in cost,” he said.

In his application to attend, Duff and Glasgow Police Chief Horace Johnson worked on his presentation on cameras for the police cruisers.

“A lot of departments at the institute already have in-car camera systems and have requirements that their officers utilize them. There have been several success stories from getting convictions by using the cameras. It’s a great piece of technology. We just don’t have a lot of it right now,” Duff said.

Johnson said it was a great honor for the department at the city to have Duff selected to attend and discuss technology that will help officers. He said the GPD recently received grant funding to purchase Tasers for its officers and will likely pursue more grants in the future to purchase cameras. The GPD is one of the last law enforcement agencies in the region to outfit its officers with Tasers.

“I think that it’s mighty important to have every tool available to the officers to help them do their job. We require a lot of them so I think it requires of us to provide the latest and the most technological things that are available to ease the job. There’s an awful lot of things for them to do,” he said.

One of those tools, a Kevlar vest, saved Duff’s life on Sept. 19, 2002. He had just finished his shift around 1:30 a.m. and was filling up at the gas station when he heard a call of shots fired on McKenna Street. He and Captain David Graves, then a sergeant, responded and were inspecting more sounds of gunshots from behind the residence when the shooter appeared from behind them and shot Duff in the back with a 12 gauge shotgun from less than 10 feet away, Duff said.

“I’ve been pretty fortunate to have been shot and come back to do this job. There’s no doubt that had I not been wearing the vest I would have been dead,” he said.

He received a purple heart for being shot in the line of duty as well as a membership into the Kevlar Survivors Club.

Duff, a Glasgow Police Officer since 1991, is now the department’s operations commander and the team commander for the Certified Emergency Response Team.

He said his job is to be aware of all the issues and questions the department members have.

“I work for the men and women of this department. I won’t have all the answers but I am here for them when they need me. My job is to make sure that they have the equipment and the manpower and the technology to do theirs,” he said.

Because of his involvement in the department, Duff doesn’t get much time to be only a radio call away from duty, but when he does, he likes to unwind on his motorcycle and spend time with his daughter, Brittany, a junior at Western Kentucky University.

“She’s 20 now, and probably doesn’t want anything to do with her old man, but we try to have lunch together once a week to stay caught up on each other’s lives,” he said.

Duff said it’s his goal to help the police department be a cohesive unit that is serving the community and staying safe.

“I think as long as everybody is trying to make this a good department and help make this a good community, and if that’s working from the bottom all the way to the top, I think that’s all anybody could ask of the police department,” he said.