With 2016 quickly drawing to a close, it’s that time again to take stock on what went right and what went wrong over the past 12 months. In this piece, I’m going to examine one of the most publicly overlooked statistics out there in cop land—the death rate.
It’s tough to resurface from an abyss of an entire year’s worth of death and destruction stories feeling good, period. Factor in the bonds of fraternity and unique life experience shared with the tragically deceased officers you’re focusing on and it gets harder.
If you allow yourself to dwell on it, you can see your own death and the suffering of those you would leave behind in every blue life lost day in and day out, all year long. With that being said, there is some consolation for this cop in not having to write last year’s article on the issue over again. Researching the significant dip in line of duty deaths in 2017 has been bittersweet.
Per the Officer Down Memorial Page, 124 officers died in the line of duty nationwide in 2017. Thankfully, it is a sharp decline from the 148 dead cops I wrote about last year around this time in my OpsLens article A Deadly Year for Police Officers. The optimist inside of me says the disparity represents 24 lives saved and an unknowable number of surviving family members’ lives prevented from ruin.
The pessimist reminds me of those 124 stories of grief, guilt, and regret that could have been prevented in some cases, but ultimately weren’t. Viewing the year through one lens of hope and the other as a cynic is necessary for me because the former lens provides relief from a brutal and unforgiving 2016, but the latter delays my forgetting of those who weren’t spared this year. Ask any surviving family member of a cop killed in the line of duty. Everyone else forgets and moves on eventually, but they never do. Perhaps neither should we.
Ask any surviving family member of a cop killed in the line of duty. Everyone else forgets and moves on eventually, but they never do. Perhaps neither should we.
Of the 124 heroes who ended their watch this year, 115 were male and 9 were female, with the average age being 42. These fallen officers averaged 13 years and 1 month of on-the-job experience—a number that always haunts me. Sometimes the years bring complacency, and complacency kills. Other times, the years bring wisdom and the survival instinct of a cat with nine lives. This statistic reminds me that even cats run out of lives and that bad luck can outdo the most seasoned professional.
The State of Texas once again trumped the rest of the 49 in line of duty deaths this year with 14. New York and Florida both tallied 9 to California’s 8. Here in Georgia, we notched an unwanted 6. Though Texas was the deadliest state to serve for a second straight year, their total dropped from 20 to 14. Police in The Lone Star State can take a small amount of solace in that.
Sometimes the grim reaper can’t be reasoned with or defeated with return fire.
At the time of this writing, we’re enjoying a 12% decrease in total fatalities from this day last year—but going deeper into the numbers reveals that there’s actually more good news to be thankful for. 80 officers were shot, stabbed, beaten to death, or deliberately run over by vehicles in 2016. That number is down to just 56 this year—a 47.5% decrease.
On the other hand, line of duty deaths related to drowning, electrocutions, falls, fires, poisonings, explosions, and job-related illnesses are up 50% from last year. It’s a deadly reminder that danger can be found around every corner, under our feet with every step we take, and in the very air we breathe while answering those 911 calls or patrolling a beat in our cities.
Sometimes the grim reaper can’t be reasoned with or defeated with return fire. In these cases, there seems to be no sentencing hearing or other judicial remedy for the surviving family. Unfortunately, there seems to be only unanswered questions and chalking it up to “wrong place at the wrong time” for the devastating loss.
K9 officers sustained less loss this year, with 22 line of duty deaths compared to 35 last year. Still, 9 highly trained and loyal police dogs were shot, stabbed, or run over by suspects in vehicles.
Police have also had a deadlier year working long hours behind the wheel of a patrol car in 2017. 20 officers perished in automobile wrecks, with an additional 4 losing their lives during high-speed pursuits last year. This year, the numbers are 25 and 5 respectively. The Below 100 initiative, which focuses on training and educating officers to better prevent automobile-related line of duty deaths, once again did not achieve its goal of a calendar year with under 100 police-related deaths, to no one’s surprise.
It’s a lofty goal and such a year has not occurred since 1943, but we did get within striking distance of the magic number despite sustaining more loss behind the wheel than we did in ‘16. “Driving Miss Daisy” isn’t a part of the job, but we can still do better at minimizing the loss of life while driving from call to call.
We can’t forget about man’s best friend. K9 officers sustained less loss this year, with 22 line of duty deaths compared to 35 last year. Still, 9 highly trained and loyal police dogs were shot, stabbed, or run over by suspects in vehicles.
At the midway point of 2017, numbers were tracking to surpass the death toll of last year, but the second half has been a godsend for police just looking to put in a day’s work and go home. Police officers and their K9 companions have a lot to be thankful for this holiday season, and I do want to give credit where it may be due.
The Trump administration has been more supportive of law enforcement both in policy and in sentiment than any other presidential administration that I can remember in my lifetime. This is a detail that gets completely lost—perhaps by design—in the everyday reporting of the mainstream media.
From the days of the campaign trail to the end of his first year in office, President Trump’s supportive words have been a breath of fresh air for cops in comparison to the criticism and BLM pandering of his predecessor. Whereas anti-police propaganda and cage-rattling helped concentrate anger that would eventually spill onto the streets in the form of violent riots on countless occasions nationwide, many would also argue that it motivated the influx of police ambushes and other attacks against uniformed personnel in 2016 as well.
I’m going home to my family and I’m going to do everything I can to make sure everyone around me does the same.
To be clear, I haven’t found any hard evidence proving Trump is responsible for a single officer’s life saved this year—but I certainly wouldn’t dispute that his controversial style and knack for controlling the media narrative has taken metric tons of pressure off us all. So long as Trump himself is public enemy number 1 in the MSM, there’s little time left for anti-police groups to command the same presence on everyone’s screens. The fire goes out when you don’t fan the flames.
While Trump has vowed from the outset of his presidency to place emphasis on supporting the law enforcement community and even recently publicly called for the death penalty for cop-killers, we’re still just talking about words that probably have little effect on the decisions violent criminals make to kill us. The death penalty idea is still a social experiment I’d like to see played out, though. If it deters one cop-killer, it’s a win.
In terms of actual policy, Trump struck last summer with a lift on the military surplus ban invoked by the Obama administration. Shortly after, Las Vegas PD was using military surplus gear to save lives outside of Mandalay Bay. Win.
In committing to the enforcement of existing immigration laws, we’ve seen the fewest arrests at the southern border in 46 years. One would think Border Patrol agents are safer when encountering fewer illegal immigrants, some of whom may be a real threat, trying to cross. Win.
Sanctuary cities advocating for the harboring of felonious illegal immigrants are being challenged rather than applauded under this administration. Kate’s Law is aimed to protect all citizens, including police, from preventable crimes committed by proven criminals who simply need to be dealt with. Win.
Regardless of who oversees the country, police officers are ultimately responsible for our own successes and failures. I don’t come up with a New Year’s resolution most years, but this year I want to buck that trend. If we did 124 this year, I want to do even less next year.
My resolution is to be a better beat partner and back up my peers on more “routine” calls than ever before. I’m vowing to train harder and be tactically better. I’m going home to my family and I’m going to do everything I can to make sure everyone around me does the same.
How else do we get below 100?
UPDATE 12/31/17 1:00pm: A Colorado Sheriff’s Deputy was shot and killed during a domestic disturbance on the final day of 2017 to bring the total line of duty deaths of 2017 to 125.
