Police shooting stats
Some stats on officer deaths in 2005:
Fifty police officers were shot to death in the United States last year, among 122 who were killed in the line of duty.
FBI: 122 Police Officers Killed in 2005
Mon May 15, 12:28 PM ET
WASHINGTON – Fifty police officers were shot to death in the United States last year, among 122 who were killed in the line of duty.
In all, 55 officers were killed intentionally, two fewer than in 2004, according to preliminary
FBI statistics released Monday. Vehicles were used in five deaths, the bureau said.At the time they were killed, 34 officers were wearing body armor. But the FBI did not say whether bullets penetrated the armor in any of those deaths. Handguns were used to kill 42 officers, while five were shot with shotguns and three with a rifle. Six officers were killed with their own weapons, the FBI said.
The bureau said that authorities solved all the killings.
Twenty eight officers were killed in the South, 10 in the Midwest, 10 in the West, and five in the Northeast, the FBI said. Two officers were killed in Puerto Rico.
There were 67 accidential deaths of officers in 2005, 15 fewer than a year earlier, the FBI said. There was no description of how those deaths occurred.
The preliminary numbers come from information submitted by more than 10,000 state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies. The FBI publishes final numbers in the fall.
May 17th, 2006 at 12:37 am
If it is anything like the previous years, the statistics play out like:
#1 car accident
#2 accidental discharge with service weapon
#3 suicide with service weapon
#4 perp grabs service weapon
#5 perp supplies own weapon (handgun)
#6 perp supplies own weapon (knife)
#7 perp supplies own weapon (long gun)
Cops are rarely killed, but it is usually their service weapons or their patrol vehicles doing the killing when it happens. I imagine this is because these are dangerous elements that are present in every accident or attack than an officer is involved in. Not every felon has a weapon, but every cop that wrestles with a felon does.
May 17th, 2006 at 12:49 am
I wonder how this compares to other hazardous professions. I don’t mean to malign the police or trivialize their service. I think it’s a noble profession. But from an empirical point of view, it would be interesting if it wasn’t really substantively more dangerous, than, say, driving an 18 wheeler.
May 17th, 2006 at 2:40 am
Sebastian, funny you should ask. I had a post on this very subject some time ago.
And for truck drivers and all jobs (totals and rates per 100,000 ):
In this (top eight) list cops aren’t even mentioned.
Go read it, more info is available there.
May 17th, 2006 at 10:07 am
Marc, where is “convenience store clerk?” Those guys get shot the most out of any profession. Or is it simply that being shot is such a generally low risk that it doesnt have an effect on the dangerous job rankings?
May 17th, 2006 at 10:16 am
I find this interesting…
“The bureau said that authorities solved all the killings.”
Ever notice how cop killings all get solved, but many killings of people who are not piloce officers don’t?
I find it particularly poignant that a cop in Windsor, Ontario, Canada was recently killed and there was a huge funeral and dinner put on by the city, with a blue ribbon campaign to create a fund for the guy’s wife and young children. That’s all fine (well, except maybe the free 600-seat dinner party), but, last year another man was gunned down in the same city. He also left a wife and young children. There was no city-funded dinner. There was no blue-ribbon campaign. The investigation of the murder was lacklustre and particularly feeble, and as far as I know noone was ever even charged. The difference? He was not “one of them”.
This whole “us vs them” (them being everyone who isn’t one of “us”) attitude that pervades the police service (note that word: service) disgusts me. I know it exists everywhere, but cops are one of a handful of the worst perpetrators of this attitude, and they are in a position of far too much power to be behaving in this manner.
May 17th, 2006 at 2:49 pm
Beerslurpy –
“Where is ‘convenience store clerk?’” I recall being surprised that it wasn’t included in the data when I wrote that post, now that one of the links has expired I can’t find it either. I did do a brief surch for more statistics but was unable to find a concise listing. Maybe more convenience store clerks are armed today?