Officers know they may find themselves in the line of fire and when it happens, a vast majority or 80 percent of officers fired upon will leave law enforcement within five years of an incident.
Wausau Lieutenant Dennis Saager found himself on the receiving end of bullets in January, 1992. The shooting happened as a suspect fled a police barricade and shot Saager from 18 feet away, narrowly missing him.
Saager tells us that incident and another one about a year later taught the department a lot. He says officers need to treat every call as though it has the potential for harm.
The Lieutenant says more grants for bulletproof vests and better, higher-powered weapons have helped but it's continuous training that really helps police officers.
Marathon County lost a deputy in 1994 when Jeff Sheets was ambushed in the line of duty.
