Stats highlight dangers facing police, firefighters

WE tend to take law enforcement officers and firefighters for granted — or, in the case of police, find reasons to criticize their work. Yet the experiences of Ronil Singh and Christopher Roy are sobering reminders of the inherent dangers law enforcement officers and firefighters face on the job.

Singh, 33, was shot and killed Dec. 26 while making a traffic stop in Newman, California, a city of 11,000 located east of San Jose. Officials said the fatality was the first in the history of the 12-year-old department.

Singh’s killing has taken on political overtones. Stanislaus County Sheriff Adam Christianson says the suspect had come to the United States illegally from Mexico, had been arrested twice for DUIs and had a known gang affiliation. Yet a bill that became law in 2017, Christianson said, kept his department from contacting Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“This is a criminal illegal alien with prior criminal activity that should have been reported to ICE,” he said. “Law enforcement was prohibited because of sanctuary laws and that led to the encounter with Officer Singh.”

A native of Fiji, Singh had been with the department since 2011. He was among 53 law enforcement officers shot and killed in the line of duty during 2018 — a 15 percent increase from 2017, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

Oklahoma, thank goodness, didn’t lose a law officer to gunfire in 2018. The lone death in the line of duty occurred in February, when Jarate Condit, 23, a reserve officer with the Asher Police Department, died in a single-vehicle accident. (One of last year's victims, Ventura County, California, sheriff’s deputy Ron Helus, was among those killed Nov. 8 in a mass shooting at a bar in Thousand Oaks. Helus had earned a master’s degree online from the University of Oklahoma in 2016.)

The U.S. Fire Administration reported 83 firefighter fatalities during 2018. One of the most recent victims was Roy, 36, of Worcester, Massachusetts. On Dec. 9, he and his colleagues responded to a fire in the basement of a three-story, six-unit apartment building.

However, “Conditions deteriorated rapidly and, ultimately, the fire went to five alarms,” the USFA says. Five firefighters were able to escape. Roy and another firefighter became trapped and had to be rescued. The other firefighter survived, Roy did not.

According to the USFA, Oklahoma lost two firefighters on the job in 2018. One was William F. Brinza III, 64, with the Cowskin Rural Fire District in Grove, who suffered a medical event soon after responding to a structure fire in May. The other was Madison Clinton, 54, assistant chief for the Friendship Volunteer Fire Department near Altus, who was killed in August when part of a residence collapsed on him.

As this new year gets underway, we extend our gratitude to the men and women across Oklahoma who pledge to serve and protect their communities, and wish them a safe 2019.