The 32 officers killed in the first half of 2016 is a 78 percent spike compared this time a year ago, according to the NLEOMF.
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While law enforcement are declining over the last three decades, the country has been rocked by ambush-style assaults like the shootings in Dallas and Baton Rouge earlier this month. Of these, 32 officers were killed in firearms-related incidents, 24 officers were killed in traffic-related incidents, and 11 officers died due to job-related illnesses and other causes. In March, after Jacai Colson, a police officer in Prince George’s County, Md., was shot and killed at a police station, Craig T. Floyd, the CEO of the memorial fund, said in a statement that the high numbers of police deaths “strongly point to a growing disrespect for the rule of law in our nation”. Only three officers died in these circumstances in 2015, compared to this year’s 14.
Deaths averaged 127 a year in the 1970’s, according to the organization. This is after Baton Rouge was also hit by an ambush style attack that killed 3 officers. Some officers said they were taunted or followed while working, while others said they kept their guns on them at times they would otherwise not.
“We believe at the next engraving we’ll be 1,969 and we aren’t even all the way through the year”, he says, adding, “if all of us in the Law Enforcement Association could change one thing in our career, it would be to lower the number of officers killed in the line of duty”.
Minority police officers are often caught in the middle of discord between local police departments and minorities in the jurisdictions they serve. In Dallas, a black gunman opened fire on police during a July 7 protest against recent police shootings of black suspects; the gunman killed five officers before being killed by authorities. Louisiana lost seven officers.
He’s head of the state’s largest law enforcement union, C.L.E.A.T. They’re in charge of putting the names on the Texas Peace Officers Memorial Monument.
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Cunningham called it “really unfortunate” that “in a time we need to connect most with the community”, these potential steps are “driving a wedge between the community and the police”. Cathy Lanier, the police chief in Washington, said she ordered her officers to double up hours after the Dallas rampage.
