Ask this question of most public safety personnel and they will respond “my safety is most important, because if I am injured or killed, I can’t do anyone any good”, or “my safety is most important since I want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem”.

I suggest while either answer gets a passing grade on the written examination, but what I observe is it is not what happens in real life, so why are we hiding the truth? I believe the truth is that the individuals safety is not always first, if it were, no fire-fighter would ever enter a burning building, a health-care provider would never deal with a bleeding, vomiting patient or one with a contagious disease and a police officer would never respond to a domestic or make a felony traffic stop.

From my experience here is where my safety lies in a list of priorities.

1. If a member of my family is in jeopardy, don’t follow me as I may be about to do something stupid, but I will do something and that makes me number 2 on my safety priority list, but wait;

2. If my partner and I get in trouble, WE need to get out of trouble, so now I’m number 3, but wait;

3. If children in general are in trouble, I will take greater risk to help, that makes me number 4 on my list of whose safety is most important. Where do you think you really are in the “whose safety is most important question”?