The attacks on police in Dallas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, that left eight officers dead earlier this month sent waves of fear through law enforcement agencies across the country, with departments ordering officers to double up on patrols as a safety measure.
These deaths contributed to a grim tally this year. Through last week, 32 officers were shot and killed in the line of duty, according to the National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund, a nonprofit group that tracks these deaths. More than half of the officers fatally shot died in ambushes, the group said in a report released Thursday.
On average, about 25 officers have been shot and killed by the midyear point over the last decade, FBI data show. And since 2005, the FBI figures show that about 20 percent of fatal shootings of police have been ambushes.
The new numbers, released with the attacks in Texas and Louisiana still fresh in the public’s mind, come at a time when overall line-of-duty deaths have fallen significantly. On average, fewer officers have been fatally shot in each of the last four decades, overall line-of-duty deaths have decreased over that span, and deadly assaults are on a steady decline.
Overall, the memorial fund said that 67 law enforcement officers died in the line of duty through last week, up from 62 over the same period last year. The new report shows that 21 of these deaths were not in “felonious incidents.” Instead, they stemmed from car crashes, job-related illnesses and, in one case, an officer who drowned.
This was the first time in three years that traffic-related incidents were not the leading cause of death for officers at the midyear point, the new report said. Traffic-related deaths have outpaced any other cause of death for law enforcement in 15 of the last 20 years, according to memorial fund data.
Even as statistics have shown that policing has gotten significantly safer, current and former officers, as well as their relatives and union officials, have expressed increasing concerns recently about the safety of those in law enforcement.
The deadly shooting in Baton Rouge last week left three officers dead, while five officers were slain earlier this month in Dallas.
Authorities have said that the shootings in Baton Rouge and Dallas both involved lone attackers who specifically targeted law enforcement.
The shootings in those places, combined with the killings of two bailiffs in Michigan and the fatal shooting of a Kansas City, Kansas, officer, contributed to a brutal stretch for law enforcement. In a 12-day span this month, 11 officers were fatally shot, more than a third of all officers shot and killed all year.
According to the memorial fund, the average number of officers fatally shot by the middle of the year fell to 26 in this decade from 63 such deaths in the 1970s. At this point last year, 18 officers had been shot and killed, down from 24 in 2014, according to the memorial fund. The number of officers killed by gunfire at the midyear point on the calendar peaked recently in 2011, when 40 officers were shot and killed in the first half of that year, the law enforcement memorial fund’s reports show.
Charges dropped
BATLIMORE – Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake says reforms in the police department will continue to move forward after charges were dropped against the three Baltimore police officers who were still awaiting trial in Freddie Gray’s death.
Rawlings-Blake told The Associated Press on Wednesday that reforms and efforts to bridge the divide between the community and the police are needed to make a world-class department.
Gray died a week after he was gravely injured in the back of a police van.
Prosecutors dismissed charges against three remaining officers, blaming police for a biased investigation that failed to produce a single conviction in the death.
