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pokeybill t1_j2sc624 wrote

Reply to comment by [deleted] in Pennsylvania officer killed, 2nd wounded; suspect shot dead by cloud_coder

It's just the reporting, the rate of police being killed by suspects has actually remained fairly consistent over the past decade.

Police officers have a safer job than many other professions, they are not even close to the on-the-job mortality rates of Electrical Linemen, Logging workers, Oil/Gas workers, and etc.

Far and away, over the past two years COVID is the number 1 killer of cops by a very large margin.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_law_enforcement_officers_killed_in_the_line_of_duty_in_the_United_States#/media/File%3AUS_law_enforcement_deaths_in_the_line_of_duty_1791-2016.png

Edit: changed "the rate of police being killed by suspects has actually decreased over the past few years" to reflect 2021 and a slight increase.

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ericchen t1_j2so628 wrote

That’s not what the data shows.

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/01/13/us/police-officers-line-of-duty-deaths/index.html

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pokeybill t1_j2sr8vx wrote

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_law_enforcement_officers_killed_in_the_line_of_duty_in_the_United_States#/media/File%3AUS_law_enforcement_deaths_in_the_line_of_duty_1791-2016.png

2013: 27 gunfire deaths 2014: 50 gunfire deaths 2015: 42 gunfire deaths 2016: 64 gunfire deaths 2017: 44 gunfire deaths 2018: 51 gunfire deaths 2019: 49 gunfire deaths 2020: 45 gunfire deaths 2021: 55 gunfire deaths

At any rate, it should be noted even the highest value in the past 10 years (64 in 2016) represents a miniscule % of police officers (0.014% of the 468,000 police officers employed in 2016)

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ericchen t1_j2srp8u wrote

That’s a far cry from the “consistently declining for years” or whatever you had before the edit.

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Unconfidence t1_j2tin81 wrote

Dude legit the only reason you're making this comment is because you're not looking at the image in the link.

We've been on a declining trend since the 1990's.

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ericchen t1_j2tjwxi wrote

Maybe if the argument was made 7 years ago it would be worth considering, but the image is way out of date. We’ve had 3 presidents since the most recent data point on that chart.

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Unconfidence t1_j2tkhaq wrote

Yeah and gun violence statistics take about a decade to compile. Unless you think there was some large increase in gun violence in that uncovered period, then it still stands to reason that we're on the lowest end of a declining trend.

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ericchen t1_j2tokbl wrote

That’s blatantly untrue, the article I linked to was published Jan 13, 2022 and referenced deaths in 2021.

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Unconfidence t1_j2tpw70 wrote

Dude this is one of the sources for the article you posted:

Murders rose sharply in 2020 but data is lacking across much of the country

2020, and we still lack complete data on that year. Here:

> The FBI has also recently changed its reporting system, which may negatively impact the amount of data the agency is able release going forward. The 2021 UCR report will be based on a collection system known as “NIBRS”, which lets agencies submit detailed information for each crime, including information on victims and relationships between offenders and victims.

>However, it’s more difficult for agencies to collect and report data with this level of detail, which will likely impact the number of agencies who participate – less than 10,000 agencies reported NIBRs data in 2020.

So, like I said, these figures take about a decade to compile.

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ericchen t1_j2ttnr6 wrote

And yet the numbers are up despite the more work required to compile data. And that also ignores the 2021-2020 years prior to the new system being implemented in 2021.

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Unconfidence t1_j2ty3v6 wrote

Maybe those relatively high numbers could have a little something to do with the fact that the country was on lockdown for two years prior? Just a thought.

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ericchen t1_j2tyvvl wrote

It’s not just relatively high, it’s high in absolute terms (number of deaths_. Besides, it’s not like the pandemic killed so many people that the denominator’ (population) has substantially changed. Population growth was still positive, albeit at a much slower rate.

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ChallyII t1_j2scymj wrote

Delivering pizza is more dangerous.

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ExpatJundi t1_j2u6x8r wrote

Any numbers on how many pizza delivery drivers were murdered last year?

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ChallyII t1_j2u8ww2 wrote

I can tell you delivery drivers were ranked 6th for most dangerous, law enforcement was 18th.

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ExpatJundi t1_j2u9jqd wrote

Ranked where? What are the numbers?

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ChallyII t1_j2uaykw wrote

The Bureau of Labor is the source

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ExpatJundi t1_j2ufmh9 wrote

The words "pizza" do not appear anywhere on this page.

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cfoi.nr0.htm

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ChallyII t1_j2uht64 wrote

Cute. The word driver/sales worker is though. If you follow the links as well, police isnt even the top 9.

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cfoi.t04.htm

*even further broken down

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cfoi.t03.htm

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ExpatJundi t1_j2ujicl wrote

So when you said pizza delivery was more dangerous than being a cop, that was based on what exactly?

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docmedic t1_j2t7va7 wrote

Which is a good thing that they are paid poorly and rely on tips! Tip big if you live in a dangerous neighborhood!

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montemanm1 t1_j2wldnu wrote

>Police officers have a safer job than many other professions, they are not even close to the on-the-job mortality rates of Electrical Linemen, Logging workers, Oil/Gas workers, and etc.

But I would guess that in the list of professions in which getting murdered on the job just because of the job is a serious concern, law enforcement has to be near the top

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pokeybill t1_j2x2sv3 wrote

Sure, and police officers are given broad discretion to kill if they fear for their lives, no matter whether their lives were actually in danger at that momemt.

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montemanm1 t1_j2xnpe5 wrote

No one (no sane person, anyway) wants to kill Electrical Linemen for the sole reason that they are Electrical Linemen. That was the point I was trying to make: plenty of people want cops dead because they are cops. Not many other occupations carry that specific risk. Maybe divorce attorneys, etc.

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pokeybill t1_j2xqtbe wrote

There are other professions where people are murdered for doing their jobs - for example, federal and state inspectors are sometimes murdered for performing their duties, attorneys and judges are often targets, and etc.

The difference is what you sign up for when taking a job - those inspectors, judges, and attorneys don't enjoy qualified immunity like police, they didn't sign up for putting their lives in danger.

I understand your point but intent has no bearing on how objectively dangerous a particular job is when it comes to risk of death.

All things being equal, there are many professions far more deadly than policing.

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montemanm1 t1_j2yftim wrote

>All things being equal, there are many professions far more deadly than policing

Agreed on that point

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