"If It's Predictable, It's Preventable"
National Law Enforcement Roadway Safety (NLERS) Program trainer, David Flory, and program manager, Brett Cowell, share roadway safety stories and what NLERS offers officers nationwide.

Imagine being on duty as a law enforcement officer and hearing a distressed call for help over the radio. What would you do? Most officers would be on their way immediatelyâfellow officers are family.
David Flory answered a call like that while serving the City of Bedford in Texas. With an urgency to assist, he started speeding toward the officersâ location. Before he knew it, he was involved in a crash. Surviving the collision, he was reminded of the numerous dangers officers face while on duty, especially when operating a patrol vehicle. This lesson stuck with him, affecting not only his future but those of officers around the country.

Flory served in the Bedford Police Department for 32 years, later becoming chief. During his career, he worked in patrol, K-9, narcotics, SWAT, and more while climbing his way up the ranks to leadership.
Having experienced firsthand the risks officers face daily, he learned that prevention is key. After leaving Bedford and becoming the City of Hot Springs Police Departmentâs chief, Flory realized he was ready to retire and make a widespread impact.
Flory now works for the Institute for Intergovernmental Research (IIR), where he was recruited to help create a curriculum and train officers in the VALOR for Blue and the SAFELEO programs. In 2018, he joined the National Policing Institute-operated National Law Enforcement Roadway Safety (NLERS) Program as part of the programâs partnership with IIR.
NLERS, funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, offers no-cost courses and resources to law enforcement agencies. Tapping into the talents of trainers like Flory, this program travels nationwide, delivering in-person courses to officers. Since 2018, the program has explodedânow offering online variations, a separate suite of additional curriculum, and technical assistance where agencies can request hands-on help with their roadway safety needsâall at no cost to the agency or officers.
Brett Cowell, senior program manager at NPI, has worked on this program since its creation in 2018.
âI have a special interest in NLERS because I am a first responder who frequently works on and around the roadways,â stated Cowell. âItâs incredibly rewarding to work on projects that have the ability to impact an officer's safety and wellness.â
- Brett Cowell

While facilitating courses, Flory meets officers from all over. He speaks with agency leaders in the executive sessions and line-level officers in the patrol officer courses. While the curriculum remains largely the same, Flory finds himself discovering new close-call stories from the officers he teaches and fellow instructors, further emphasizing the need for and importance of the information he presents.
To this day, Flory is still amazed at the number of officers who donât wear their seat belts. Most officers he teaches explain that itâs because they fear being ambushed and unable to respond quickly enough. Flory says that statistically, the risk of injury or death is far greater when not wearing a seat belt than being ambushed.
Recently, a new instructor named Jacob joined the NLERS team. Soon after, he told Flory a story about seat belts and the advice he gave to a fellow officer that saved his life.
â[Jacob] had a sheriff's deputy that he used to run calls with in Texas. A couple of years ago, that deputy never wore a seat belt. After just starting as an instructor in our program, Jacob spoke to this deputy. He said that one night, when they were doing some windshield time talking to each other, heâs like, âMan, I'm going to be a new instructor in the National Law Enforcement Roadway Safety Program, and I just got to tell you, man, I want to encourage you to wear your seat belt because I see you all the time not wearing your seat belt.ââ
Flory says that Jacob took the conversation further, âIf you're not going to wear your seat belt, at least give me some names of people in your family. That way, if you ever die in a crash, I'm going to tell them I had a conversation with you about wearing your seat belt.â
This resonated with the deputy so deeply that he started wearing his seat belt regularly. Not too long after that, the deputy was involved in a head-on collision where he intentionally had to stop a car that was going the wrong way on the freeway. The collision totaled both cars.
Flory said, âThat deputy sent Jacob a text message and a picture of the crash and said, âYou saved my life.ââ
That wasnât the only time. About a year later, that same deputy hydroplaned while responding to a domestic violence call, ultimately crashing and rolling his patrol car multiple times. Thankfully, he was wearing his seat belt.
âThe training and technical assistance provided by NLERS can save officers' lives by giving them and their agencies practical steps they can take to reduce the risk of officer-involved collisions and struck-by incidents."
- Brett Cowell
For years, Flory has been teaching these courses, and he has heard many of these stories. He knows this program has a large reach and has impacted many officers since its inception. He says, âEven if we just saved one person in our program, thatâs okay because we saved that person.â
NLERS offers three in-person sessions: Roadway Safety Executive Session, Roadway Safety Patrol Officer Course, and Roadway Safety Train-the-Trainer Workshop. Each is tailored for different ranks within an agencyâreally honing in on the change each group is able to make personally and agency-wide.
Additionally, NLERS offers online courses. The curriculum is designed for busy officers working shifts. The self-paced nature allows them to distill the information offered while not feeling tied down for too long.
NPI experts are also ready to assist agencies with customized technical assistance, which can include policy or program design.
Being a law enforcement officer is dangerous enough. NLERS encourages officers to learn how to keep themselves safe while on the roadwaysâitâs arguably more dangerous than numerous other duties assigned.
The program and its trainers, like David Flory, use a saying from Gordon Graham: âIf itâs predictable, itâs preventable.â
We agree.

To learn more about NLERS, visit leoroadwaysafety.org.