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The question of health and safety at work is a central issue for trade unions. In Britain it is an area of concern where there were important legislative initiatives in the 1970s and 1980s, although surprisingly this has received relatively little attention in the debates about trade unionism. This neglect results in an aspect of union activity about which little is known. Explores through a detailed longitudinal study of a middle‐range engineering firm, from the late 1970s into the 1990s, the ways in which trade unions organize and act on health and safety questions. Argues that it is almost “routine” that workers face dangers and hazards at work, a central feature of the work and employment experience of most workers. However, this is often difficult to deal with as individual issues, or as matters which are subject to collective consideration. On the one hand, workers often appear to accept the dangers and hazards they face. On the other hand, managements are preoccupied with questions relating to production and finance, rather than the day‐to‐day problems faced by workers. This tension suggests that the future wellbeing of workers in unionized workplaces lies not so much with legislative provisions and rights at work, but in education and the organizing ability of workplace unions, raising and addressing what often seem like individualistic problems in collective ways.

Active shooter incidents have risen considerably in recent years, elevating public and law enforcement focus on improving response to these incidents. The contemporary policy for reacting to an active shooter event is for the officers who first arrive on the scene to move quickly to engage and neutralize a shooter, prioritizing victim safety and minimizing loss of life. This study provides a preliminary understanding of the police view regarding their role in active shooter events and their experiences with active shooter training.

We conducted a survey of 413 sworn personnel across three US cities. Analyses examine differences in officers’ training experiences across the agencies and predictors of a sense of duty to prioritize victims’ lives over that of officers.

Officers’ training experiences differed by agency, yet most officers supported a duty to sacrifice their lives to prioritize victims’ safety during active shooter incidents. Officers with more years of experience have lower odds of supporting a duty to sacrifice their lives to save victims during an active shooter situation relative to less experienced officers. Respondents who recall officer safety among the top three most memorable topics from their recent active shooter training also have lower odds of supporting a duty to sacrifice.

The authors add knowledge about police officers’ experiences with active shooter training and officers’ opinions about their role in responding to active shooter incidents. We discuss implications of the findings relative to police culture and training and suggest directions for future research.

Whilst there are potential benefits to be gained from the consultative approach to the management of health and safety at work required by recent legislation, the actual implementation of such consultation is not without its problems. In particular the process of developing effective consultation may actually lead to conflict between participants. The process of implementation calls for careful management if the advantages of consultation are to be achieved.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the understanding of industrial safety signs and messages by registered and non‐registered safety officers in Hong Kong with ten different user factors, and examine the relationship between cognitive sign features and sign comprehensibility.

The research methodology includes the survey development and appropriate statistical analyses. In total, 92 Hong Kong Chinese participated voluntarily in the study. A questionnaire survey was used to collect information about demographics, personal experience on safety and health issues, experience of reviewing safety sign information, comprehension scores, and the ratings of sign features for 30 industrial safety signs used in Hong Kong. The effect of ten user factors on sign understanding for the design of highly usable safety signs was examined.

Of the ten factors tested, only the factor of possession of registered safety officer (RSO) status was a significant predictor of comprehension performance. As expected, comprehension scores varied with the cognitive sign features of familiarity, concreteness, simplicity, and meaningfulness.

The currently used industrial safety signs should be redesigned as soon as possible, with careful consideration of cognitive sign features. To make the results more generally applicable, further research is needed to collect more data, particularly from females.

This research suggests that an effective education program for promoting the intended messages of industrial safety signs in various industries and work environments should be conducted as soon as possible. Safety officers, especially those who work in the construction industry need to play a more prominent role in ensuring workplace safety, and in transferring safety knowledge to the workers.

There is a need to enhance RSOs' risk perception and to increase awareness of the importance of safety signs through training programs, so as to improve workplace safety and organizational safety culture. The redesigned safety signs need to be launched with a public education program.

The paper's findings emphasize the need to create awareness of the importance of industrial safety and promote understanding of safety sign meanings amongst people in their work environments. Useful information for the design and use of safety signs was generated.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role that agency culture, training, and supervision play in the rates of on-the-job seatbelt use among peace officers, as well as other officer safety-related driving concerns such as cell phone use, Mobile Data Terminal use, and other sources of distraction.

Based on semi-structured interviews with California peace officers.

This study found an array of agency culture issues related to on-duty collisions, including distraction, failure to follow policy or procedure, fatigue, self-selection processes among officers and agencies, supervision and field training processes, morale issues, and family/lifestyle issues.

To explain these agency culture findings, this paper introduces the concept of the “banality of risk” to understand why many officers choose not to use risk-attenuating equipment. The findings are suggestive of a set of best practices that agencies could consider regarding in-vehicle officer safety.

The purpose of the paper is to examine and contrast director duties in health and safety in the UK and Australian jurisdictions, the former influencing the latter's health and safety regime until Australia introduced a new more progressive regime.

The authors are practitioners who have combined desk based research with professional knowledge of how the law in both jurisdictions is applied. The approach was a comparative study of the underlying principles behind the enforcement regimes.

The paper found that the UK position could be strengthened but whilst the new Australian position could be a preferable development, it is too early to tell whether or not the Australian model would be more effective.

Research was desk‐based only.

Practitioners in both jurisdictions should consider potential developments in the area of director duties, particularly in the UK where Section 37 could arguably be strengthened.

This is the first comparison of the UK and Australian jurisdictions in respect of health and safety and examines an alternative to the consent, connivance and neglect model used in the UK to attach culpability to directors and officers. It also examines the possibility of introducing due diligence in the UK.

The definition of community safety is broad and the role of community safety officers has reflected that breadth. This article points to examples of the variety of structures and responsibilities that have emerged since 1998. It argues for a better definition of the role of the community safety officer to enhance the professionalism of the practitioners.

Motor-vehicle-related events (MVEs) are the leading cause of on-duty death for law enforcement officers, yet little is known about how officers view this significant job hazard. The purpose of this paper is to explore officers’ motor-vehicle risk perception and examine how prior on-duty MVEs and the death or injury of a fellow officer influences this perception.

A state-wide random sample of 136 law enforcement agencies was drawn using publically accessible databases, stratified on type and size of agency. In total, 60 agencies agreed to participate and a cross-sectional questionnaire was distributed to 1,466 officers. Using six-point Likert scales, composite scores for motor-vehicle and intentional violence risk perception were derived. A linear regression multivariable model was used to examine factors affecting motor-vehicle risk perception.

Motor-vehicle risk perception scores were significantly higher than intentional violence scores. A prior on-duty motor-vehicle crash, prior roadside incident, or knowledge of fellow officer’s injury or death from a MVE significantly increased motor-vehicle risk perception scores. After controlling for potential confounders though, only prior on-duty crashes and roadside incidents impacted motor-vehicle risk perception.

The study comprised primarily small, rural agencies and generalizability may be limited. Also, although the data were collected anonymously, reporting and response biases may affect these findings.

This study involved a large and diverse cohort of officers and explored motor-vehicle risk perception. A better understanding of officers’ risk perceptions will assist in the development and implementation of occupational injury prevention programs, training, and policy.

Examines a questionnaire returned by 188 Alabama police and sheriffs’ departments with regard to pursuit issues. Considers variables such as department size, current policy, officer judgment, forcible stop techniques and training. Finds that 80 per cent of these departments had an emergency response policy. Clearly shows that a majority of the respondents think their department’s policy is somewhat restrictive. Cautions that policy may not always be followed in practice. Finds that there is a comprehensive effort to promote safety for officers and all involved, notably in the fact that only 44 per cent of the responding departments allow the use of forcible stop techniques.

The safety representative/committee regulations of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, which became law in October 1978, have led to a substantial health and safety training programme being mounted by the TUC. In May 1977 a special TUC Conference on workplace health and safety discussed a variety of matters pertaining to this subject area. Among their most important decisions was one reaffirming that the emphasis of such training should be on TUC approved courses only, with the key functions of such training being to help identify health and safety issues in the workplace, find appropriate means and standards for dealing with health and safety problems and help establish an “infallible union workplace organisation” to ensure that the employers actually implemented safety measures. The TUC's target was that some 160,000 safety representatives would have undergone such training by 1980. In fact the TUC failed to attain this extremely ambitious target figure as is evidenced by the following figures: