Why We Support The Wounded Blue
The Wounded Blue is the only National organization dedicated to assisting wounded officers injured in the line of duty.
Did You Know? 58,000 Officers were assaulted in the line of duty in 2019 – National Police Statistics
America’s police officer deaths are up nearly twice over the previous year. This year alone, 38 police officers have been murdered on the job. That’s nearly the number for the entire previous year.
Last year alone, more than 58,000 frontline first responder officers were assaulted in the line of duty. Tens of thousands of officers are attacked during not-so-routine traffic stops, robberies, and more.
The FBI Crime Statistics figures aren’t in yet for d2020, but that number is already expected to be exponentially higher.
Unfortunately, all too often these officers’ injuries go ignored and unassisted by their own police departments. In fact, it may come as a surprise to most Americans that 80% of police departments don’t offer full benefits for officers due to budget issues.
As a result, in the end officers are the ones left paying their medical bills, lost pay, and often, just like our troops coming home from ware, this is a tragic end to their duty.
The Wounded Blue knows it doesn’t have to be this way.
Americans can and should take care of our own.
Through increased national attention brought about by Code 3 and increased donations, The Wounded Blue can ensure that no officer ever feels alone in their recovery.
Just as The Wounded Warrior Foundation took care of our wounded troops returning home from the war on terror, The Wounded Blue seeks to do the same for the frontline officers on the battle lines here at home today.
“I was sitting at my kitchen table , and wanted to end my life.” –Eddie Richardson, officer shot in the line of duty, run over by a car, then abandoned by his own bureaucracy
The Wounded Blue knows how to help wounded officers because they themselves were once wounded officers.
Our founder Lt. Randy Sutton, 33-year law enforcement veteran and star of the 1990s hit series “COPS”, began the Wounded Blue organization after himself having a stroke in his police car in Las Vegas that ended his career.
The Wounded Blue wants to ensure that no officer goes through what he and tens of thousands of officers have gone through – and our team of Peer Support professionals sees to it every day with our trademark “Code 4 Wellness program” that assists officers down in the line of duty.
The Wounded Blue provides through its Code 4 Wellness Program:
- Peer-to-Peer PTSD Counseling
- Medical Support for doctor’s office visits at $17/month
- Imaging appointments such as CT scans, MRIs, X-Rays
- Lab tests
Why Now?
With the nation in crisis, America’s frontline responders are under attack like never before.
Heroes during COVID-19 Crisis
Called heroes just weeks a few weeks ago due to their heroic rescues during the COVID-19 crisis, unfortunately America’s police officers have now, due to a vitriolic political climate, become an unfair target of anger.
In just the first five days of the protests and riots last summer, according to The New York Post more than 1,000 frontline officers were beaten, stabbed, shot, killed, and in some cases, suffered injuries so badly they have been placed on ventilators for the rest of their lives. That number has exponentially grown over the last 70 days.
However, just as we did not abandon our troops returning from the war on terror – even if we disagreed with the war – We can’t now abandon our public safety officers in this time of need. We learned a valuable lesson from Vietnam that we cannot abandon those who serve and protect us.
As a non-political, non-profit organization, it’s not about the red, it’s not about the blue. It’s about The Wounded Blue.
