PD: More officers assaulted this year

First 5 months saw 419 incidents, data shows

Phoenix police officers have fired their weapons while on calls this year more than ever before, but another statistic is an equally troubling piece of 2018’s increasingly violent puzzle.

There was a 45 percent increase in the number of assaults on Phoenix police officers in the first five months of this year, compared with the same period in 2017, data the department provided to The Arizona Republic shows.

Of the 419 documented assault cases, suspects punched, charged toward, shot at or spit on officers. There were 288 assaults on police from January through May last year, data show.

Aside from the increase in volume, there has also been a spike in assaults where the suspect was also armed.

One out of every 24 assaults on Phoenix police in the first five months

of 2017 involved a suspect armed with a gun, department data show. That proportion surged to one in 10 during the same time period in 2018, leaving police unions to again decry a $149,000 taxpayer-funded study they say second-guesses police use of force — and leaving top brass to again scratch their heads about what is driving the alarming uptick in violence.

Through May, 125 Phoenix police officers reported being injured in assaults — up from 81 last year.

“While I cannot account for the reasons why some members of our community take active aggression against officers, I can encourage and create opportunities for additional training,” Chief Jeri Williams wrote in a statement this week. “The safety of our community and officers is the foundation of this department.”

That statement — which called attention to the record number of shoot- ings involving Phoenix police officers this year — was posted Tuesday afternoon on social media.

By Tuesday night, the figure already needed updating. Officers responded about 6:15 p.m. to a central Phoenix home near Seventh Avenue and McDowell Road and learned that a 24-yearold woman had armed herself with a knife and made “threats to harm herself and others,” Phoenix police said.

Police contacted the woman in the living room. She was holding a “large kitchen knife” and “charged at” an officer who then fired his gun. The shot did not hit the woman, but a police sergeant deployed her Taser, which stopped the woman, police said. The woman was treated and taken to an area hospital, and later booked into jail on one count of aggravated assault on police.

Tuesday’s shooting was the 33rd of the year involving the Phoenix Police Department, surpassing 2013’s previous all-time high of 31 in a calendar year. Fourteen of this year’s shootings were fatal, and 31 involved armed suspects — 24 with handguns, two with replica guns, one with an officer’s firearm and four with a knife or sword.

For perspective, there were 21 Phoenix Police Department shootings in 2017, 25 in 2016 and 17 in 2015, department data show.

“While I cannot account for the reasons why some members of our community take active aggression against officers, I can encourage and create opportunities for additional training.” Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams