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Police officers were among those injured during a confrontation with a gunman outside the Empire State Building in New York in August.
The number of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty fell sharply in 2012, the first full year that two Obama administration police safety programs were in effect, according to preliminary figures released Thursday.
With four days left in the year, 127 federal, state and local officers have died on the job so far, the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund reported — 23 percent fewer than the 165 who were killed last year.
The nonprofit organization keeps a comprehensive tally of all law enforcement officers who die in the line of duty, honoring them each year at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington.
Craig W. Floyd, the organization's chief executive, credited close cooperation among federal, state and local authorities in bringing a new focus on officer safety. The decline follows two years of what he called "alarming" increases.
"The law enforcement community has banded together with laser-like focus on peace officer safety," Floyd said in a statement.
The decline also comes during the first full year under two Obama administration police safety programs, one run by the Justice Department and one by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The Law Enforcement Safety Initiative, which Attorney General Eric Holder rolled out in March 2011 after meeting with police chiefs from major U.S. cities, created an Officer Safety and Wellness unit at the Justice Department, boosted training and technical assistance for local officers and invested $25 million in 96,000 bullet-resistant vests that were distributed this year among more than 4,000 local agencies.
Firearms-related deaths fell to 49 this year, the memorial fund reported — down a third from 72 last year and even below the 10-year average of 57 from 2001 to 2010.
Traffic-related incidents remained the biggest hazard, however, as they have been nearly every year since the late 1990s. But they, too, fell significantly, from 60 last year to 50 this year.
The NHTSA and the memorial fund launched their own Officer Safety Initiative in August 2011, funding research and public information campaigns around police safety in traffic-related incidents.
A breakdown for 2012 wasn't reported, but the campaign noted that 42 percent of officers killed in auto crashes over the last 30 years weren't wearing safety belts. It said nearly all those deaths were preventable.
Other targets of the initiative include:
- Reducing distracted driving — mainly officers' use of their cellphones instead of their radios, a practice many agencies prohibit that — which the fund said was responsible for about a quarter of all police traffic deaths.
- Encouraging agencies to invest in high-visibility apparel so officers are easier to see during traffic stops at night.
Watch US News crime videos on NBCNews.com
Shootings and traffic incidents were by far the leading hazards. Third was work-related illnesses, at 14, many of them heart attacks.
Overall, the statistics indicate that, despite its dangerous image, police work isn't among the most hazardous jobs in the U.S. The death totals work out to about 1.56 per every 100,000 sworn federal, state and local officers across the country — less than half the rate of 3.5 per 100,000 for U.S. workers in all jobs in 2011, the last year for which complete figures were available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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Leave a Comment:
interesting statistics..
invested $25 million in 96,000 bullet-resistant vests that were distributed this year among more than 4,000 local agencies
Firearms-related deaths fell to 49 this year, the memorial fund reported — down a third from 72 last year and even below the 10-year average of 57 from 2001 to 2010.
25,000,000 divided by 49 = 510,204
49 divided by 96000 = 0.00051 %
well...
if it saves one innocent life...
or something like that..
blue skies smiling at me... nothing but blue skies do I see..
I wonder who is invested in this supplier? of vests?
The biggest threat to police officers is their own stupidity. No bullet proof vest is going to help there.
It would seem the crazies with guns have learned not to shoot at the police cause they shoot back.. something about that rings true. since the gun laws in Connecticut worked and kept Adam lanza from buying a gun days earlier, unfortunately his mother should have been required by law to have a gun safe and locked those weapons up so here ADHD son didn't go on a shooting rampage !
Dont ban guns , if you can afford to buy guns YOU CAN AFFORD TO BUY A GUN SAFE !!! keeps them out of the hands of burglar's and stupid children !!!
And if you can't afford guns or a gun safe but you have guns? What then?
Z-933870 :And if you can't afford guns or a gun safe but you have guns? What then?
Look I'm all for gun ownership, however just like anything else YOU have a responsibility to keep it out of the hands of children. heaven forbid something happens with your guns cause YOU were careless in how you locked them down and someone died, YOU should be held just as responsible as the person who pulled the trigger.. this is exactly the kind of bull@!$%# that liberals live for and if they get there way, WE ALL WILL LOSE OUR GUNS ! because you couldn't come up with a secure way to lock-up your @!$%#ing guns !
Mike,
Was this article about personal gun ownership? I must have missed that part.
For young kids yes. But if I have a 12 year old, he should damn well know how to use a gun safely...which does not get taught in this country anymore. Teach them safety, and teach them not to play with them. After that, if they pick up the gun and hurt someone....no, I don't believe I should be responsible....not anymore responsible than I would be if they committed murder with a knife or karate.
I have to say that I abhor the loss of innocent life of these police officers. I would also like to know the statistics of unarmed and innocent loss of life attributed to the acts of police officers, shootings, high speed accidents, use of tasers, extreme use of force etc.! Do they outnumber the number of deaths in law enforcement? As I have said before there are good and bad amongst our police, just like in the rest of humanity....Weed out the bad!
Well done, police safety initiative.
Congratulations.
Nevertheless, Ban Guns.
The police and everyone else would be safer.
bicfi, the public would not be safer if only the police and government had guns, so I'll keep mine thank you.
Z, trigger locks and locked up bullet/clips, but i see your point.
I'd love to see study into the tiny fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent of lives saved by gun safes just to throw it in the face of people who obsess over them. I grew up with guns all over the house, never touched one without my parent(s). I played violent games, watched violent and sexualized TV and movies, grew up poor, etc.,etc.,etc.
IT's all about the Drug War. 40-70% of gun murders in the USA and worldwide are caused directly or indirectly by the illegalization of drugs, and the subsequent black market it creates which is run by sociopaths (gangs or individuals). No stupid drug laws, lower murder rate. In 1933 when they repealed alcohol Prohibtion the murder rate fell 40% in that one year.
Guns ownership rates by nation (when you stop cherry picking stats and start looking at all countries) are not even corollary to gun murder rates, murder rates, or violent crime rates. The top 8 gun ownership nations have 3 times lower murder rates than the top 8 gun control/ban nations. When you look at all the nations there is just no possibility of a causal relationship. The USA is number 1 in gun ownership rate, number 28 in gun murder rate, and 110th in overall murder rate. We aren't dangerous, and the chance an American will be murdered by a gun is .0041% (4 in every 100,000)...an tiny threat. For perspective, the flu kills almost 3 times as many Americans every year as gun murder...cars also kill more...as do negligences by surgeons in surgeries.
The total chance an American gun owner will murder someone ith a gun? .026%...2.6 in 10,000. The media thrives on hits to websites and sensationalist ratings on TV. They overblow the threat.
Also, more lives are saved by gutns than taken by guns...they are a NET GAIN of life. Again, the murder and suicide rates are LOWER in nations with high gun ownership rates. I'm not claiming gun ownership rates being higher is causal to thosel ower murder and suicide rates....I'm just pointing ito ut for the "look at England" stat cherry pickers. England, BTW, has a much higher violent crime rate than we do. In 2009, it was 4 times higher. Mutrder isn't the only violent crime. While about 3% of Americans were victims of any crime (violent or otherwise) in 2009, in England more than 13% were victims of crimes.
Please look up President Obama's own school, Hatrvard Law and Public Policy, and look at their study which I'm citing. It's one of 15 studies done without any NRA or GOA money or stooges. Just facts. They all came to the same conclusion, whether a liberal school or a more pro-gun alumni.
http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/jlpp/Vol30_No2_KatesMauseronline.pdf
http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/...useronline.pdf
Crime rates in Prohibition rose immediately 78%, 24% in just one year from 1920-1921 (the first year)
http://library.thinkquest.org/04oct/...Crime_Rate.htm
The murder rate was cut in nearly half (40% decline), from 10 per 100,000 to 6 per 100,000 when Prohibition ended. This was directly caused by the repeal of Prohibition in 1933.
http://www.cato.org/publications/pol...on-was-failure
Looks like the cops driving habits is still the biggest threat to cops over guns. I would like to see how many innocent people were killed by cops thru all means. Bet that number is a lot more.
The most interesting statistics lie in the comparison of the police officer fatality rate with the overall on-the-job fatality rate in the US: Even BEFORE this year's 23% reduction in the police office fatality rate, it was substantially smaller (by about 42%) than the overall rate.
Yet the taxpayer's money went to police officer safety programs, rather than to safety programs that might have benefitted the broader workforce.
Why? Well, the reason is obvious:
In the class warfare that is underway, the police are the standing army of the 1%, while the remaining workers are the enslaved enemy. Of course the money will go their own troops!
What about the unreported police shootings?
mike259,
Everything I ever read about that story says they were his "Mothers" guns dude. Don't know where you got that information.
Rockyroad,
Do you mean police that are shot or, police that shoot people? If it's police that were shot, it's most likely included in the statistics...
jimboza,
When I read posts that poke at the police such as yours, it tells me you must have a long rap-sheet and hate the police. Yeah, you let the cat out of the bag about your own personal life.
Anyone else would never say that unless of course, their life is in the same rut as yours.
Have a nice day...
Its funny someone would write about this as the cliff nears..
Even so I don't thing any should die in the line of duty, could you imagine reading this thirty years ago.
Police shootings of citizens up 300%
Who cares? Did you read the article - they're focused on their own safety!
The Police are not the "to Serve and Protect" blue knights they project themselves to be..
First order of business.. protect yourself first.. and only after ensuring your "OWN" safety do what is necessary to protect the citizenry.
The Police and their various corrupt initialed agencies,FBI,BATFE, DEA, etc. have grown so bloated and out of control that the ordinary citizens of this country hate them and what they stand for. The fleecing of the populace by incarceration for profit and the for profit corruption of our Justice System.
Eric Holder should be serving time.
exodus,
So, you want anarchy. Correct?
He's right. Capitalism has injected itself into the justice system, and that's exactly where it shouldn't be. There should not be commercial prison systems. Additionally, police departments should be not see a penny of the fines for speeding.
I'm glad the "last responders" are safe.
Guilty till proven innocent.
How many Americans and / or their pets were killed this year alone?
for us in albq they shoot first now
Probably because the politicians are laying off more policemen in order to pay for the politician's fat pensions and their mismanagement of public finances....
How many innocent citizens and dogs were killed by police?
531 citizens have died at the hands of killer cops so far this year.
And they were all innocent victims huh John? I'd like to see the stats on that one.
They were all presumed innocent until convicted in a court of law. But they never got that chance. They were gunned down by cops before a trial could be held. Now some of them might have been guilty of a crime requiring the death penalty, but it is safe to say that the majority of them were not. Some committed no crime at all, except possibly attempting to defend their homes from a home invasion by armed and masked men.
How "innocent" were they really?
How threatened were the police...?
Noone ever knows..
They were innocent until proven guilty, or at least that used to be the assumption in this country. But I guess many Germans cheeleaded for the Gestapo too.
Go to YouTube and watch cops shooting dogs that are in cages, on chains, and doing nothing but barking at them. Go watch drug raids where they raided the wrong house and murdered unarmed people by shooting them first, worrying about if they were a threat later.
The fact is any hierarchical institution, especially one monopolized by force of the state (like courts, military, and police) will favor sociopaths. More than one study and/or observational review by psychologists have shown politicians, cops, and military men are more likely to be socopaths than the normal population. The average American has a 2-5% chance of being sociopathic...those occupations have multiples of that. Unchecked power, the ability to get away with murder (literally and figuratively), etc. all draw sociopaths. Those are their dream jobs. And they excell in these instiutions too...most of the sociopaths end up at the top...like our Congress and Presidents, our heads of police, our Generals and high ranking officers in the Military, etc. It's because they don't spend any time on personal relationships (or less time, like the BTK killer who was a "good father' according to his wife and kids), will step on anyone they have to on the way to the top, are master manipulators, liars, and excuse-makers, etc...so they can focus more time on "winning", which is their only goal in life.
Sociopathic criminals come from the same gene pool as a large number of cops, politicians, military men, and CEOs. It's just the way it is. Now stop denying that compulsory institutions create conditions by which sociopaths rise to the top like helium balloons rise to the ceiling in a room. Start being an American patriot and standing with the assumed innocent people, and not a nationalist standing with the state blindly.
I swear, next to sociopathy, there is no bigger mental problem in this country than the cult of nationalism and statism.
@ProIndividual-3906907
Guess what? "Sociopathy" isn't an accurate term. Next time, fact check your terminology before you start spewing idiocy as if you're well informed.
"They were innocent until proven guilty, or at least that used to be the assumption in this country..."
Incorrect. Never was, is, or will be. The correct term is not guilty. A BIG difference!
@6.4 Beckie, look up medical definition for sociopathy:condition of being sociopathic. Follow your own instructions!
Hey garbageman, look up Beckie's post its 6.3 not 6.4. Can't anyone get it rite?
thanks for correction dan. old man brain fart!
What? I'm sorry, the burden of proof in the USA is on the prosecution, not the defense. The defendant is always assumed innocent...or that's how the Founders set it up anyways.
So your "never was" is flatly false. Review the history of law and jurisprudence in this country, please.
Another "What?"
Are you kidding me? They diagnose sociopathy all the time. It's highly related to ASPD (not the same thing) and psychopathy (also not exactly the same thing). What causes the pathological thinking is often the cause of the differing prefix. If one thinks social factors caused the pathology, then they are a "sociopath" (as in, child abuse caused it). If the cause looks to be genetic some will call them a "psychopath" (as in the mind on its own is the cause).The two terms are used interchangably in mainstream society, although not in the DSM-IV. They are often mistaken for ASPD.
Since you went there that would be right, not rite
Wow, an article is written showing police lives are being saved, and it looks like those who don't like police are out in force today. Probably believing everyone of them are crooked, bullies and not worth saving. I am sure if any who feel that way ever truly needed one, they would refuse their help, right? What a shame.
Because no doubt, those same police officers would be willing to put themselves on the line to protect any civilian, even the ones that hate them, if they got a call for help, or came upon a situation where they were needed. While those who complain, would never be asked or expected to do the same, day after day.
It is the police in our country, working with the courts, who are keeping society from collapsing into anarchy. They are not perfect to be sure.But considering other nations around the world, they are a far cry from being the worse. And we do have the opportunity of recourse when they are wrong. Most nations don't.As in any field of work, you have lots of hardworking folks and then some who abuse, or are ill suited to their positions.Such individuals obviously don't represent the rest and need to be removed. Sometimes that doesn't happen.
Is it? I thought that was the Church. Because they always say all morality comes from religion....specifically, their religion. So I guess the police must only be protecting us from atheists.
To believe that people will of themselves just follow the laws of the land is to not have studies history.There have always been criminals and the need to have those who enforce laws. Man himself breaks the very laws he has established to live by.Some will always choose follow the rules, while other break them. Just look at those who speed.People in a society will not all follow what is expected of them. Then look at those mentally ill, or who just love to cause problems, take what isn't theirs.
Innocent until proven guilty, but treated guilty until proven innocent.
I dont mind police, I just don't like Obama.
Is that how you think of anarchism..."a philosophy that advocates chaos"...lol. It neither advocates chaos nor does it logically lead to chaos. What you meant was "anomie" (lawlessness, a lack of social norms)...not "anarchy" (a society built on only one rule: No one may coerce another without consent).
Is that how you justify the state's coerced monopoly over market demanded services like police and courts?
If those coerced monopolies ended it would hardly mean no one would provide those services of law and courts (dispute resolution service), and policing (enforcement of the dispute resolution service's decisions, and a peacekeeping service to help prevent/stop coercion).
For 200,000 years those services have existed (see anthropology), and only for the last 6,000 years have states coercively monopolized those services. Like all monopolies of force, we get higher prices, lower quality service, and no accountability by the provider of the service.
Any other brainwashing slogans you care to share with us?
Speed limits are not about safety...they are an energy policy meant to drop the consumption of gasoline per mile. The reason people speed is because it is known to them intuitively that it is safer than going the speed limit.
Two objects traveling the same speed in the same direction cannot collide (Physics 101). So speeding "with the flow of traffic" is safer than doing the speed limit when traffic is moving faster. Slamming on your breaks to avoid a ticket that shouldn't even be handed to you is what causes accidents. Tickets are revenue, not for safety, logically.
Anything else you blindly believe the state is doing for your own well being?
If traffic laws were about safety they'd never give out tickets for speed, they'd only give out tickets for reckless driving...which can be done at any speed. It's about collectivist energy policy and revenue. Get your history and facts straight.
@ProIndividual;
I commend what you are trying to do. But, your wasting your time. These people on the vine are mostly sheeple and do no research at all. No matter how much you spoon feed it to them they will not like the taste and fight to the death.
No, let them rot in their own feces, as you can tell they like it..
"It is the police in our country, working with the courts, who are keeping society from collapsing into anarchy. They are not perfect to be sure.But considering other nations around the world, they are a far cry from being the worse. And we do have the opportunity of recourse when they are wrong. Most nations don't."
It is the people that keep society in check, not the police. You want to see what happens when the people get out of control, look at WATTS or LA after Rodney King. You couldn't find a policemen and if you did they were headed in the opposite direction.
I vote that the people are the ones that keeps America from collapsing.
@ Voodkokk
agreed..people with guns.
Police deaths down by 23-percent. Increase in the number of people killed, that the police were sworn to protect -- an increase of 2,300 percent. If I was a police officer I would like those odds, too.
Now all you have to do is get rid of the thugs with badges and probably things will get much better.
The number of firearms related deaths fails or chooses not to reveal how many of those deaths are caused by "friendly fire" or the officer's own weapon. It was surprisingly honest to mention that over 40% of traffic deaths involved cops who weren't wearing seat belts. We'll never know how many seat belt tickets those cops wrote. It was also refreshingly honest to note that the on the job death rate for cops is half that of all
American workers.
As there are no laws against immorality in our society, except those specifically recognized as crimes, and none against any group for their religious or lack thereof, except as they are in direct violation of society's established laws. and further that morals can exist separately from religious groups as has been recognized for some time by humanism, including held by atheists, therefore, police are left to enforce any and all laws established by such a society for its protections as agreed upon for the common welfare of all its members. Regardless of any specific group to the contrary.
So, it is police who essentially maintain stability in society, and have as history has shown.For there will always be a criminal element which thrives off of the general community. If left to its own, it will grow and consume the better, which must be protected for its own sake.Otherwise evil will take over and dominate.
This is the mark of a can-do administration. We need to be ever diligent in finding ways to prevent fatalities in all lines of work! Police officers stand between us and the bad guys, the least we can do is respect and protect them, instead of cutting their pay, as conservatives want to do.
Kent....you may blame conservatives but in the cities where cops have been laid off and pay has been cut it has been the cities that have been run by democrats for decades. Just look at Detroit, Chicago, Camden New Jersey....just to name a few.
Police are a nasty, "us against them", brotherhood. Police don't "protect and serve" and anyone who believes that is sadly mistaken. They're report writers.
Its probably related to the loss of 23% of the Police work force.
Was Fast and Furious part of the Obama police safety program?
Didn't work too well for Brian Terry.
You need to remember fast and furious was a program started by Bush.
bob.....Holder was appointed by Obama.
yeah bob, the program under Bush was actually successful because they kept track of the guns. Fast and Furious was a separate endeavor that represents yet another of the failures under the Obama amdinistration.
The death by officers not wearing seat belts if you notice goes back 30 years. This is well before seat belt laws and recomendations were in effect. This would be like saying strict gun laws were put in place in 2000 but we are going to put data in the report that goes back to 1990 just to skew the numbers in case no one pays any attention. If you look it up two officers were killed by accidental fire, so about .75%.
As far as morals go in this article there are laws, killing, stealing and false witness are all felonies.
Maybe it's because more cops are now shooting first and asking questions later.
Now how can that be??? After all, there are more guns on the streets this year than last year or the year before that. So, if we are to believe the liberal crap, there would have to be more deaths this year than last. Could it be that more guns bought legally kept more people safe...hmmmm. Gun sales up...death rate down. Something to think about.
Tell that to the people in Aurora, Newtown, etc.
we need to get those numbers back up there as many Innocent people that they kill thats only fair
And young child/infant murders up 2000%...This is what the bottom rung on the ladder to HELL looks like.
So how are Repugnicans attempting to rebut the connection between these programs and the lower death rates?
The entire reason that police shoot first and ask questions later is that they are worried that everyone may have guns. Not that some of them aren't a$$wipes who abuse their position, but I don't think people really want more dead police. I mean, we're insane enough. Besides, the majority of them just want to live and raise their families like most other people.
Violent crime is going down, and that is even factoring in failed liberal cities, that have more crime than some wars.
And how should one feel about a person who takes a job that allows them to take a life if they feel the need , The public knows LEO are almost always above the law and less than 1% of police corruption and abuse is ever prosecuted . Sure cops don't deserve to die but then again neither does a preacher getting money out of an ATM or a grand mother chasing undercover cops out of her yard who are acting like drug dealers .
If cops did a better job of policing their own then maybe the public might show a little more compassion , how many cops are boarder line bullies and are protected by their brothers in blue ?