Killings of police down; traffic deadliest in 2017
Toll is second- lowest in more than 50 years
The number of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty dropped sharply in 2017, marking the second- lowest toll in more than 50 years.
Last year, 128 officers died in the line of duty; 44 were shot and killed, according to data from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, a non- profit aimed at honoring officers and improving safety.
The fund released the data Thursday, just days before a deputy was gunned down Sunday in suburban Denver when police responded to a domestic disturbance.
Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock said a suspect, later killed, fired more than 100 rounds in an attack he likened to an ambush. Four other deputies were also injured.
Still, the number of law officers killed is down 10% from 2016, when 143 officers died, with 66 gunned down. The only other year with fewer deaths in the past five decades was 2013, when 116 officers were killed.
“This is one of those good- news, bad- news situations,” said Craig Floyd, president and chief executive of the fund. “On one hand, you had 128 officers who made the ultimate sacrifice, showing the cost of public safety, but for the first time since 2013, the number of deaths has actually declined.”
Reasons for the drop could include advanced safety gear such as bulletproof vests, better training, better relationships and reduced violence in communities — or just 2017 being an outlier, experts say.
“It’s definitely a good sign, but if it’s a trend, we’ll have to see,” said Geoffrey P. Alpert, a professor at the University of South Carolina and a researcher on high- risk police activities. “We’re starting to see the impact of all this new training and equipment and a shift because of the overall concern for officer safety.”
While shootings played a big role, traffic accidents caused the largest number of deaths.
Crashes killed 47 officers this year, down 15% from 2016. A number of factors — including enhanced policies that limit vehicle pursuits and speeding and the “move- over law,” which requires drivers to slow down and switch lanes when an officer is pulled over — could be behind the drop, experts say.
Texas, as in previous years, tallied the highest number of law enforcement officers killed on the job with 14 deaths, followed by Florida and New York, both with nine deaths.
Across the U. S., ambush- style attacks killed eight officers in 2017 in the fund’s total, a decrease froma jarring 21 in 2016. The largest number of fatal shootings this year occurred as officers responded to domestic disturbances.
Randy Sutton, a former police lieutenant and spokesman for Blue Lives Matter, an advocacy group that supports law enforcement, said multiple factors likely led to the drop in killings, including a change in how officers approach arrests because of controversial, high- profile shootings in recent years. Officers don’t put themselves in dangerous situations as often, he said.
“There’s a saying in law enforcement: ‘ You can’t get in trouble for the car stop you don’t make,’ ” he said. “They don’t want to be the next Ferguson, the next officer burned on the stake.”
The number of people killed by officers increased slightly from 963 in 2016 to 971 this year, according to data compiled by The Washington Post. But the number of high- profile shootings that sparked protests was far lower than previous years, Floyd said.
“I’m hoping this is a sign that officers have restored some of that trust, especially in communities where that relationship has been torn,” he said, adding that body cameras have helped departments become more transparent and stop violence before it begins after controversial incidents.
Officers do have better equipment and more de- escalation training, so this year’s data might be an outlier, said Justin Nix, a criminal justice professor at the University of South Carolina. There’s no way of knowing howoften officers survived because a bullet hit their body armor instead of their body, he said.