2013: Fewest Police Deaths by Firearms Since 1887

[Jesus Malverde]

Source: AP

The number of law-enforcement officers killed by firearms in 2013 fell to levels not seen since the days of the Wild West, according to a report released Monday.

The annual report from the nonprofit National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund also found that deaths in the line of duty generally fell by 8 percent and were the fewest since 1959.

According to the report, 111 federal, state, local, tribal and territorial officers were killed in the line of duty nationwide this past year, compared to 121 in 2012.

Forty-six officers were killed in traffic related accidents, and 33 were killed by firearms.

The number of firearms deaths fell 33 percent in 2013 and was the lowest since 1887.


Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/2013-fewest-police-deaths-firearms-1887-21369151

[NYC_SKP]

1. "The report credits an increased culture of safety among law-enforcement agencies"

It's a shame that we don't do much more to instill a sense of safety among civilians, students, parents, etc.

Unfortunately, efforts to do so are often met with resistance and we end up with stupid careless people with guns.

Lowest since 1887??? Wow!!!

Thanks for posting.

[Jesus Malverde]

3. I suspect the number of citizens killed by the police, has never been higher.

Excluding the Native American genocides, and slavery..

[LiberalArkie]

2. Is the number of shootings by police officers also down?

[Jesus Malverde]

4. It would be interesting to know. I'm not sure anyone tracks that...nt

[OnlinePoker]

5. I can't find nationwide statistics, but...

...this is from Philadelphia. What I find interesting is the police were assaulted with a weapon in the first 9 months of this year 169 times and assaulted 589 times but only responded by shooting 34 times. This was out of a total of 2.5 million dispatched calls.

http://phillypolice.com/themes/ppdv1/content-ois/OIS-MasterReport-Statistics-111413.pdf

[Ellipsis]

10. Here's the list over the years...I'll let you count them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_killings_by_law_enforcement_officers_in_the_United_States_2013

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_killings_by_law_enforcement_officers_in_the_United_States

[Kennah]

12. FBI UCR tracks justifiable homicides

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2012/crime-in-the-u.s.-2012/offenses-known-to-law-enforcement/expanded-offense/expandedoffensemain

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2012/crime-in-the-u.s.-2012/offenses-known-to-law-enforcement/expanded-homicide/expanded_homicide_data_table_14_justifiable_homicide_by_weapon_law_enforcement_2008-2012.xls

[JoeyT]

6. Does that mean that now when a cop caps a random

minority for no reason whatsoever we don't have to listen to a bunch of stupid whining about how it's such a dangerous and thankless job? Probably not.

[Kennah]

14. I'm thinking ...

[marble falls]

7. Maybe now we can start to move the arguments about gun control on both sides from a mispercieved....

increasing chance of gun violence and death to who is allowed to own guns. Gun violence (and violent crime) has been going down for the last 30 years. Maybe we can start to do something about the gun violence by cops which seems to have been increasing in the last 10 or 15 years. I say seems because no one I can find is collecting this information.

Though the NYT says police shooting incidents are increasing there:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/20/nyregion/police-report-shows-increase-in-fatal-shootings-by-new-york-officers.html?_r=0

[OnlinePoker]

8. This is the New York City Police report from 2012

It makes for interesting reading. It's sad to see that 9 of the 105 discharges were due to suicides or attempted suicides. While the numbers increased from 2011 to 2012, the trend in police weapons discharges has been downward. The highest number of shooting incidents of all types in NYC happened in 1972 with 994. There has been an almost 10 fold decrease since then.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/downloads/pdf/analysis_and_planning/nypd_annual_firearms_discharge_report_2012.pdf

[MADem]

9. Better body armor? nt

[Kennah]

13. In years gone by, yes. Today, probably not so much.

In the late 1980s body armor became wearable to point most would wear it all the time, even in hot, humid climates.

[1000words]

11. To be expected when "shoot first, ask questions later" becomes SOP