KANSAS CITY, MO (AP) --
Commanders in the Kansas City Police Department are coming to grips with one of the department's worst-kept secrets: Some police officers are refusing to buckle up while on duty.
That includes an officer who was injured in December when a drunken driver broadsided his patrol car and knocked the officer
out. The Kansas City Star reports video from the car's interior showed the officer's head likely slammed against his partner's, and neither was wearing a seatbelt.
Across the country, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says at least 42 percent of police officers killed in vehicle crashes over the last 30 years were not properly restrained.
Kansas City Police Chief Jim Corwin says he doesn't buy the excuse that officers are afraid their gun could become tangled with the seatbelt.
(Copyright ©2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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