Officer Deaths by Year

[Kennah]

Looking just at the data since 1900, it seems impossible to conclude we are now living in the most dangerous, violent times ever for law enforcement officers. If one goes into the past, even the fairly recent past, there are some much, much worse bad old days in our history.

http://www.nleomf.org/facts/officer-fatalities-data/year.html

1900 - 62
1901 - 66
1902 - 78
1903 - 82
1904 - 72
1905 - 60
1906 - 66
1907 - 84
1908 - 111
1909 - 78
1910 - 83
1911 - 116
1912 - 92
1913 - 107
1914 - 109
1915 - 121
1916 - 147
1917 - 157
1918 - 144
1919 - 196
1920 - 186
1921 - 222
1922 - 221
1923 - 204
1924 - 246
1925 - 219
1926 - 218
1927 - 243
1928 - 236
1929 - 249
1930 - 285
1931 - 249
1932 - 258
1933 - 223
1934 - 229
1935 - 206
1936 - 180
1937 - 178
1938 - 181
1939 - 116
1940 - 125
1941 - 137
1942 - 118
1943 - 84
1944 - 87
1945 - 105
1946 - 132
1947 - 121
1948 - 133
1949 - 100
1950 - 110
1951 - 129
1952 - 117
1953 - 114
1954 - 130
1955 - 116
1956 - 107
1957 - 115
1958 - 108
1959 - 109
1960 - 128
1961 - 136
1962 - 135
1963 - 136
1964 - 148
1965 - 137
1966 - 159
1967 - 189
1968 - 189
1969 - 192
1970 - 217
1971 - 244
1972 - 224
1973 - 268
1974 - 279
1975 - 238
1976 - 201
1977 - 189
1978 - 213
1979 - 213
1980 - 206
1981 - 203
1982 - 195
1983 - 191
1984 - 182
1985 - 176
1986 - 178
1987 - 182
1988 - 194
1989 - 195
1990 - 158
1991 - 147
1992 - 161
1993 - 157
1994 - 177
1995 - 181
1996 - 139
1997 - 171
1998 - 169
1999 - 143
2000 - 162
2001 - 240
2002 - 157
2003 - 148
2004 - 164
2005 - 162
2006 - 154
2007 - 185
2008 - 138
2009 - 116

[Ian David]

1. What about January 2009, January 2010 and January 2011?

Not that a single month can be used to extrapolate an overall trend.

Maybe the same thing killing all the birds is also causing people to kill cops? :sarcasm:

[Sherman A1]

2. Interesting

looking at the Great Depression the numbers are very interesting.

[Ian David]

3. And Prohibition. n/t

[slackmaster]

4. 1943 and 1944 are real flyers

No doubt due to high employment in the military-industrial complex, combined with a large portion of the demographic group most likely to commit violent crimes (young men) having been packed up and sent overseas to fight.

[Ian David]

5. I'd like to see a comparison of Police officer Deaths vs Taxi Driver Deaths by year.

In a line graph.

[KansasVoter]

6. 2010 was 20% higher than 2009. Stats not final yet.

[Katya Mullethov]

11. Think it will bust the 1922 numbers

I'll be on the edge of my seat waiting for the results to emerge ,
with the flowers of spring .

[Euromutt]

16. Of course, that would bring the numbers for 2010 to 139-140 LEO deaths

Still lower than for all but three of the preceding twenty years, including the ten during which the so-called "assault weapons ban" was in effect.

[cleanhippie]

30. 20% higher than what?

without being able to get the number of total officers on the force to compare deaths to, your stats are worthless.

[TheWraith]

7. Kicked and recommended.

Although officer deaths haven't been tied to violent crime in general, over the last 20 years. Total violent crime has gone down by a third since a peak in 1993, but officer deaths haven't followed the same trend, remaining more or less where they've been since 1990.

So what about the perception that it's more dangerous? Again, we're seeing the "magnifying glass" effect. There were more than twice as many officers killed in 1975 than there were in 2009. But you're far more likely to HEAR about it today, due to the internet and 24 hour news. In 1975, an officer death was a local story, but it wouldn't make national news. Today an officer gets shot in LA, they'll put a 15 second clip on Headline News, and you'll hear about it in Maine, or vice versa. It creates the illusion that a rare event is more common than it really is. People also believe non-family kidnappings happen dozens every day, but they don't.

[Euromutt]

14. That's a pretty important observation

In addition, there's the fact that we tend to experience crime as cumulative during the course of our own lifetimes. As we live longer, the number of crimes we've heard of, and the number of people we know who have been victims of crimes, will always increase, so to our minds, it always seems like there's more crime.

[Statistical]

17. How many more cops are on duty today.

Would be interesting to see the rate.

It may be possible that the rate of LEO deaths has decrease similarly. We are simply looking at raw numbers on a population which I assume is rising relative to population.

[YllwFvr]

21. simply conjecture

but I would imagine officer employment is up over decades, except for maybe recently. A lot of officers getting laid off. One of the things im worried about as I enter the LEO field this year :(

[pipoman]

25. According to the same site these figures come from,

there are more than 900,000 LEOs in the US. Accepting this number is accurate, the death rate for LEOs is like 15 times lower than the work force as a whole (3.3/100,000) at around .2/100,000. A pretty safe occupation apparently.

[YllwFvr]

26. man is sucked into a machine and dies

is not nearly as news worthy as when a state trooper is shot. The news likes to sensationalize things, and it fits the bill neatly

[TheWraith]

27. You have an excellent point, this number isn't controlled for numbers per hundred thousand.

So we may well have seen a substantial decline, based on the assumption that the number of police officers have increased--which is a necessary assumption based on a growing population.

[X_Digger]

8. It would also be good to see rate..

If the number of officers varies widely (and I expect it does), I'd expect the rate to be a better measure.

Another thing that seems to be odd- this must also include accidental deaths, etc- FBI's LEOKA is a better source for at least 2000-2009 and breakdown by intent- http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/leoka/2009 .

[Euromutt]

12. It looks like it's for all causes, all right

Notice the spike in 2001: that's the cops who died in the WTC on 9/11. A lot of charts and graphs leave out 9/11 because it was an anomalous event.

[Kennah]

9. Some past years should frighten the shit outta everyone ...

... when one considers there are FEWER serving officers in almost any given year as one travels into the past.

162 officers killed in 2010.
157 officers killed in 1917.
1917 is one scary year to be a cop.

[X_Digger]

10. That's why I mentioned that a rate would be good..

I can't seem to find a good source with similar breakdown of officers per year.

[1monster]

13. Considering the huge jump in both general and police populations since 1900,

percentage-wise, the death rate (I assume these are death rates of officers killed in the line of duty) has gone down dramatically over the last 110 years. Way down.

[Sherman A1]

19. Precisely

what I was thinking.

[krispos42]

15. A picture is worth a thousand digits

[pipoman]

18. It would be interesting to see how these numbers compare to

other high risk jobs..

According to the same site there are >900,000 law officers. This makes the rate surprisingly low overall.

[Kennah]

23. Most Dangerous Jobs In America

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x269338

[pipoman]

24. Wow

That report says that the average fatality rate of all professions is 3.3/100,000. If my math is right, law officer rate based on these numbers and the same site's claim of 900,000 law officers, the law enforcement rate in 2007, the highest number in recent years at 185, is only .2/100,000.

[Callisto32]

20. A quick scan makes it look to me like it is more related to prohibition enforcement than anything.

[Glassunion]

22. Totals for 2009 from ODMP and FBI.

ODMP total for the year is 128

9/11 related illness: 5
Accidental: 1
Aircraft accident: 4
Assault: 1
Automobile accident: 34
Duty related illness: 3
Gunfire: 47
Gunfire (Accidental): 2
Heart attack: 9
Motorcycle accident: 3
Struck by vehicle: 7
Vehicle pursuit: 3
Vehicular assault: 9

FBI Total for the year is = 96
Feloniously Killed = 48
- 15 officers died in ambush situations.
- 8 officers died from felonious attacks during arrest situations.
- 8 officers died during traffic pursuits/stops.
- 6 officers died answering disturbance calls.
- 5 officers died during tactical situations (barricaded offender, hostage taking, etc.).
- 4 officers died while investigating suspicious persons/circumstances.
- 2 officers were killed while transporting or maintaining custody of prisoners.

Accidentally Killed = 47
- Thirty-four of the 47 officers who were accidentally killed in the line of duty in 2009 died as a result of automobile accidents.
- Six officers were struck by vehicles
- 3 officers died in motorcycle accidents
- 4 officers died during other types of accidents
- Two officers were accidentally shot as a result of crossfire or other firearm mishap.

-- Of the 6 officers struck by vehicles
-- 3 were executing a traffic stop or roadblock
-- 3 officers were directing traffic or assisting motorists.

Federal Officer Killed = 1

[cleanhippie]

28. And your point?

Without comparative numbers such as how many total officers nationwide, your post is worthless.

[Kennah]

31. As others have observed ...

... the data should prove more interesting for historians and sociologists--not criminologists. The Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression, WWII, and the early 1970s, are eras one might examine to ask, "What was going on during those times?"

[cleanhippie]

32. Ok, I can buy that.

But is THAT the reason you posted these numbers to begin with? I guess I just am not seeing what the point of it was.

[Kennah]

33. 162 LEOs killed in 2010 has been reported in a sensationalized fashion

Felonious killings are up, but not off the charts historically.

2000 - 51
2001 - 70
2002 - 56
2003 - 52
2004 - 57
2005 - 55
2006 - 48
2007 - 58
2008 - 41
2009 - 48
2010 - 61

Accidental killings are up, but not off the charts historically.

2000 - 83
2001 - 76
2002 - 75
2003 - 81
2004 - 82
2005 - 67
2006 - 66
2007 - 83
2008 - 68
2009 - 47
2010 - 73

Officers killed in automobile accidents is up, but not off the charts historically.

2000 - 42
2001 - 36
2002 - 40
2003 - 50
2004 - 48
2005 - 39
2006 - 38
2007 - 49
2008 - 39
2009 - 34
2010 - 50

Officers killed when struck by cars is up, but not off the charts historically.

2000 - 14
2001 - 19
2002 - 12
2003 - 10
2004 - 10
2005 - 11
2006 - 13
2007 - 12
2008 - 13
2009 - 6
2010 - 16

Looking at the numbers back to 1900, I believe, is helpful to see we aren't in some sort of freefall tailspin today, at least insofar as cops killed is concerned.

[cleanhippie]

34. ok

[cleanhippie]

29. These numbers are worthless without comparing to the total number of officers on duty.

worthless.