Who’s killing cops? You may be surprised!
There is nothing more chilling and terrifying than to think someone wants to ambush and kill you. That happened to police officers 15 times last year and resulted in their deaths. It is a sad statistic.
Thankfully, it is not a common occurrence in our country.
But if we are serious about reducing the number of police officers who are killed on duty, then we need to look at two disturbing figures:
- More than one-third of police officers who were killed were NOT wearing body armor.
- One-half of officers killed in traffic accidents were NOT wearing seat belts.
According to statistics collected by the FBI, 76 law enforcement officers were killed in line-of-duty incidents in 2013 (the last year of completed data). Of these, 27 died as a result of felonious acts, and 49 officers died in accidents.
Of course, any number greater than zero is unacceptable. But we all must realize that accidents do happen even to police officers.
But if we are serious about significantly reducing the number of police officers killed on duty then we must require their leaders to mandate the wearing of body armor and the use of vehicular seat belts.
Those two administrative actions would great reduce the number of police officers killed in the line of duty.
I must also mention the necessity to provide police officers with realistic training in the use of force and for police departments to develop policies that protect both police and citizens in these circumstances.
We could reduce those numbers even further if we, as a nation, did a better job of identifying, preventing and treating those among us who are mentally ill. Add to that, better control and regulation of firearms and we may very well reduce those numbers even further.
Improving Police: A Necessary Conversation 
Another way is to train officers not to be outraged by any contempt of cop, to learn to withdraw from the scene if it can be done without risking life, and to keep remembering that heavens are not going to fall if they cannot make an arrest or catch a fleeing felon.
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The contempt of cop culture definitely needs to be taken out. If cops can’t take the heat, then they should not have become a cop in the first place.
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First of all there seem to be at least a couple sets of numbers floating around, as there often are. And some of them appear to include 2014 which rose from 2013; however 2013 had the lowest number of deaths since 1944; and the only other two years worse than 2014, since 1959 were 2012 and 2009.
http://www.nleomf.org/facts/officer-fatalities-data/year.html
Without going into a full study I can tell you that a large percentage of them almost certainly come from abandoned inner cities. The clear implication is that many of the problems actually precede conflicts with cops. Much more needs to be done to improve education and reduce poverty, gambling child abuse and other contributing causes of crime against everyone, not just police. Citizens and police alike have to pay the price for the mistakes made by politicians and business leaders based on greed corruption or ideological reasons.
Another popular category that is mostly not adequately discussed is that some of the people killing police are trained by our own government, either in the military or other police. There is another report about accidental shootings of police by police that indicates that minorities are more likely to be shot. Christopher Dorner is the most recent high profile example of this and he was both a police officer and trained by the Navy. Your previous post about bullying and hazing is part of the reason for this as well.
Understanding these contributing causes could go a long way to restore the steady drop in killings since the seventies when it peaked over 200 police per year.
Fortunately another police chief in Philadelphia, I think joined Chris Magnus by supporting reform. Hopefully if there are more unstable people out there they will recognize this as signs of reform and abstain from further fanatical acts. If on the other hand they see only police in denial about the legitimate problems then there might be more problems and the decline could be reversed until more people address the roots of the problem. .
Thanks
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Thanks, Zack. It’s time to change… time to improve!
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“Citizens and police alike have to pay the price for the mistakes made by politicians and business leaders based on greed corruption or ideological reasons.”
The police play a large significant part in aiding and abetting the business leaders because the police overwhelmingly share the same political, social and economic beliefs that business leaders hold dear. The question is when will the police stand up to corrupt business leaders and start arresting them for their corporate crimes?
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In many cases this is true however there isn’t a clear point where police that do blindly obey orders and those that don’t are clearly divided into recognizable factions, especially with intimidation that starts with hazing in the academy. Also some departments in suburban areas or better managed cities aren’t nearly as bad.
A close look at different departments sometimes indicates which is which but it takes a lot of time. My impression is that many big cities often attract the worst cops and respond in authoritative manners and many rural towns do the same as well.
I suspect that politicians consult with advisers that develop training when choosing their police chiefs. This isn’t fringe conspiracy theories since some of this research has been funded and published by a variety of sources including some with military connections. The Obedience to Authority experiments and so called Stanford Prison Experiments were supported by the military and helped develop hazing tactics in boot camps and police academies.
But it is clear that there are some exceptions like Ray Lewis, Chris Magnus and a few others, including some that I have met off work, as many others probably know.
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Absolutely!
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Even if the police wear seat belts, it doesn’t excuse the fact that too many of them cause traffic accidents by speeding too fast when they are not responding to 911 calls plus talking or texting on their computer/cell phones and/or just not paying attention when driving. I have seen cops talking on their cell phones when they are driving. There is this video on youtube where a truck driver verbally chew out the police officer because the police officer was on his cell phone (the cop denied it) plus the cop was driving too fast in rainy weather.
Police officers can’t say that they want to go home safe and sound when they are contributing to their own death.
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Good points in here. Law enforcement must do what it can to mitigate as many of the risks as possible. The data about police deaths would be interesting to analyze in relation to changing technologies, etc….For example, during certain periods of our nation’s history, line of duty deaths have been much higher… But, at the same time, how many more gunshot victims are saved due to improved medical technology? How many more officers wear bullet proof vests today vs 20 years ago? the list goes on an on of the ever-changing variables that affect the number of line of duty deaths…..What would also be interesting is to have national data on the total number of assaults on police throughought the nation. If we could track that number, to see if it is improving or getting worse, and what are the variables that contribute to its occurrence, etc…..
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Thanks again, Burke, I think we may see something regarding national data on police assaults and well as a better data based on police-related shootings in the very near future.
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When you look at the history of American policing, the police have let themselves be used as a private police force in suppressing labor movements plus not doing a thing about corporate crimes committed by wealthy people and corporations because they do not learn from the political, social, labor, and economic history of America and let their own conservative ideology blind them…
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