Data for both "felonious killings" and the total number of sworn police officers comes from the FBI. It does not include deaths from illness or accidental deaths.
34 thoughts on “Raw data: Police officers killed in the US”
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Cats, charts, and politics
I don't like the trend line. Looks like it's increasing from 2013-present.
Maybe you need 2, splitting the data pre- and post- 2013?
I hope it is increasing, it shouldn’t be too hard to do way better than we have been.
Not sure if this is intentional condoning of murdering police given the "we" you use, but if so it is rather aborhent. I am sickened by the culture of impunity that exist for police brutality, but I do not rejoice for any extra-judicial murder of officers.
If you’re not part of the solution you’re part of the problem.
You’re part of the problem, then.
Yes, but does it really mean that police officers are less likely to be killed?
I know somewhere in here is the lead-crime hypothesis, but I can imagine many other factors. One alternate explanation: the population/police ratio has not kept up with population growth, and thus the police simply have fewer "opportunities" to be shot at. Or is it a change in police tactics? (The Feds seem to have taken this to heart, see the Bundy clan) One hypothesis we don't have to entertain is "fewer guns".
Regardless, its pretty much an edge case ... although as with all low-probability, high consequence events we lose our ability to deal with them rationally.
Has the NRA issued a "thoughts and prayers" statement to the four families yet?
Do the numbers include off duty officers? Chicago has had two killed in front of their homes after finishing their shifts in the past year.
This is why I love Chicago, never rest and you can make this happen just like they did.
Okay. The uncertainty I expressed above is dispelled. Agent provocateur vibes here...
It doesn’t include illness but in 2021 and 2022 more law enforcement officers died of Covid than by gunfire. Five hundred and one in 2021. This web site has the raw data and note they include 9/11 related deaths:
https://www.odmp.org/search/year?year=2021
I note that they don’t seem to count suicides. More than killed by gunfire:
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/184-law-enforcement-officers-die-suicide-year-report/story?id=108260786
So even cops kill more cops than the general public does? We can do better!
I also seem to recall reading that the largest single cause of death among on-duty cops is car accidents.
I had the impression that suicide was an occupational hazard of policing. See https://www.fbi.gov/how-we-can-help-you/more-fbi-services-and-information/ucr/law-enforcement-suicide-data-collection.
Also this report: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/06/10/high-suicide-rate-police-firefighters-mental-health/7470846001/
It feels like given the overall drop in crime from the early 1990s that this line should have dropped more than it has. It would be interesting to see homicides per 100,000 plotted over the top of it.
Good lord counting angels on the head of a pin. The number has been 10 or lower for a quarter century, including 2001 when a bunch died sadly in full view of CNN cameras in Lower Manhattan. Who cares if it’s going slightly up or down? It looks pretty stable, and it’s down like 40% from the early 1990s, and probably (although Kevin doesn’t show us) down since before then too, when cities really were “scary hellholes” that everyone who could fled. Isn’t that good enough?
I don't like rates of death for statistics like this. How many police were killed is the only decent metric. The number of police on duty in a given year seems to vary between 600,000 and 800,000 or so.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1126829/number-law-enforcement-officers-killed-us/
Put more police on the street and the rate goes down but the actual number of killings can go up! And that's the only thing that really matters. Killing police is bad period.
Shot but not killed by criminals is bad too.
5 murdered in the last 10 days. Bad.
And this is why some people, including me, think democrats deserve to get raked over the coals regarding crime.
Chicago:
"The fact is ShotSpotter is giving us an advantage when we don't have enough boots on the ground," said 11th Ward Alderwoman Nicole Lee.
"Some alderpeople in high-crime wards say many residents gave up calling 911 when they hear gunshots a long time ago. They say ShotSpotter takes the place of that, but the mayor says focusing on the root causes of crime is the key to solving it."
No such thing as a "high crime ward". Crime is low!
"And this is why some people, including me, think democrats deserve to get raked over the coals regarding crime."
LOL! Because Chicago=democrats in your universe?
This is why you’re a bootlicking fuckface.
Shot spotter picked up the shots that killed the police officer in front of her home in 2023...and no one responded. The police finally responded to her Apple Watch alert--31 minutes later. In the latest shooting, they started their response because of shot spotter, though it still sounds like it took a while for them to show up.
I know, we can do WAYYYYYY more than five. Need to set our sights higher.
Who says it is bad
I remember reading something a year or two ago that more cops died of COVID than were murdered on duty
In 2021 more cops died of Covid than all other causes put together. Police officers had access to the vaccine first but were amongst the group least likely to get vaccinated. I’ll bet they all had bulletproof vests though. Go figure.
2021 was such a great year
It would be interesting to see what the trend is for officers being shot (and not just killed).
Trauma surgery has greatly improved since the '80s. Similarly, it would be interesting to see if the recent uptick is about more shootings of officers, or higher likelihood of death if shot (a possibility given the rise in the popularity of guns like AR-15s).
10 deaths per 100,000 officers seems pretty high. I can't imagine any other developed nations are even close to that.
"10 deaths per 100,000 officers seems pretty high. I can't imagine any other developed nations are even close to that.
No developed nation has anywhere near the per capita private gun ownership as the US. More guns=more gun-related deaths.
It might be parsing too finely, but I'd be interested to see per capita figures red-state vs. blue-state. I know gun deaths per capita are higher in red states, and I wouldn't be surprised if police deaths are likewise.
Of course all this contradicts the Received Wisdom that blue states are crime-ridden hellholes that don't Respect The Blue, so it's just ee-leetist "statistics" that can prove anything, doncha know. Also, Mr. Trump will outlaw any stuff like this, so then we won't have to worry about it.
I like blue states because they don’t respect the police as much. If only they totally disrespected them maybe we could get somewhere as a society.
You’d think that police who are rightly terrified of running into a perp with a gun would support some form, any form of effective gun control, but for some weird reason they don’t.
https://medicynic.com/2024/04/30/4-police-shot-dead-only-in-america/
You’d only think that if you believe police ever argue anything in good faith.
Alas they do not.
I suggest you add the Louisiana murder rate to the graph.
We can make this number go way way up if we really put our minds to it