http://www.huffingtonpost.com/radley-balko/police-fatality-statistics-2012_b_1619725.html

You know how you hear about how dangerous it is to be a cop and how their job is more dangerous than ever... well, it isn't. In fact, cops are less likely to be killed now than at any other time in American history. This will of course go unreported by the media and will never be mentioned by police unions who always tell you that cops need more power, bigger guns, and more laws infringing on basic civil rights.

6/23/2012 10:29:59 AM

Anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law.

Nothing you say can ever be used for you in the court of law because that is considered hearsay and will be thrown out of court.

[Edited on June 23, 2012 at 1:35 PM. Reason : .]

6/23/2012 1:35:05 PM

Quote :

"This will of course go unreported by the media"

Quote :

"http://www.huffingtonpost.com/radley-balko/police-fatality-statistics-2012_b_1619725.html"

6/23/2012 5:31:22 PM

God bless The Huffington post, the Arbiter of Liberty.

6/23/2012 8:06:17 PM

Fair enough, should have said mainstream media.

6/23/2012 8:41:53 PM

You know it would be nice if people were glad that the KLOD deaths are down this year, instead of using it as some kind of political football.

Im no fan of unions, but generally speaking it is the moron politicians on both sides, as well as the courts, that pass or make precedent for more power.

6/23/2012 10:55:23 PM

I don't think anybody is upset that there are fewer cops killed on duty this year or even that the overall officer fatality rate has been in a pretty consistent downward slope for the last two decades.

The problem is that police unions use officer deaths as an excuse to push for more cop friendly laws and for increased budgets to further militarize the police. While it's great that the police are getting better body armor, it's probably not great that they get things like... [b]tanks with turret mounted .50 caliber machine guns[b]. Even if one stretches the limits of the imagination it is almost impossible to imagine a scenario in which this would be needed or it's use should ever really be considered. If one encounters a scenario where you might need a tank it's probably better to call in the national guard or a federal agency.

Furthermore, even while officer casualties continue to decline and militarization increases civilian deaths and injuries from excessive use of this military grade equipment is on the rise. The number of SWAT teams rises annually and the number of times they are utilized is at an all time high, this is despite the fact that the violent crime rate continues to fall. You see SWAT teams used when a simple, well executed and timed arrest would suffice, often with tragic outcomes for innocent bystanders.

So, to reiterate, fewer police deaths is good. The misconception that there is a "war on cops" is bad because of it's logical consequences.

6/24/2012 10:12:34 AM

I think there is a ton of cry wolf that goes on the law enforcement community. Is it a dangerous job? Sure, while statistically it might not be the most dangerous, I think the unpredictability is a large part of the danger.

6/24/2012 7:43:03 PM

I would like to see the rate of screwups as police continue to militarize. IE (police bust into wrong home), police shoot somebody holding a sandwitch.

7/20/2012 3:23:21 PM

I'd like to see it as a rate compared to "non-screwups" to eliminate rampant selection bias.

7/20/2012 3:26:49 PM

one is too many

7/20/2012 4:51:46 PM

Maybe the fatalities have been dropping because of tighter gun control laws, and more heavily armed police officers...?

7/20/2012 5:14:53 PM

But what if the sand witch that the person is holding was about to cast a spell in the officer? Does he have a right to fire on them?

7/20/2012 5:52:19 PM

Quote :

"You know how you hear about how dangerous it is to be a cop and how their job is more dangerous than ever... well, it isn't. In fact, cops are less likely to be killed now than at any other time in American history."

Not that I'm in favor of increasing police powers, but isn't the amount of danger in a job a factor of more than the fatalities? For example, could fatalities be decreasing as a result of improved medical care and response time as opposed to decreasing number of attacks?

7/20/2012 7:43:15 PM

Quote :

"Moreover, the rate of assaults against police officers also has been dropping since the late 1980s, so the drop in fatalities cannot be attributed only to better police armor, tactics, or weaponry. Criminals aren't merely killing police less, they're also attacking them less, which would seem to put the lie to the notion that citizens today respect police less, or that criminals have grown more emboldened."

7/21/2012 9:07:42 AM

Hey, coincidentally Radley Balko just released a new bit on this exact subject today.

http://www.theagitator.com/2012/07/21/cop-stuff-3/

7/21/2012 12:06:04 PM

Quote :

"one is too many"

Well your expectations are just unreasonable. Good day sir.

7/23/2012 1:41:58 PM

It's funny how that expectation gets less and less "reasonable" the more militaristic our police forces become. Suit up and raid first, all the rest later.

7/23/2012 2:09:51 PM

That's right. Allowing for a reasonable amount of human error is the cause of tyranny. Nailed it.

7/23/2012 2:22:59 PM

who said anythign about tyranny, scarecrow?

7/23/2012 2:36:20 PM

That's right. Allowing for a reasonable amount of human error is the cause of tyranny militaristic escalation of police power. Nailed it.

My point was that hyperbole and rhetoric are not the ways to have a rational discussion about anything.

7/23/2012 2:40:32 PM

maybe if these incidents were treated with the seriousness they deserve instead of the rinse and repeat cycyle of, downplay, deflect, civil suit, settlement, serious discussion could be had.

most of these situations are preventable with a little actual police work, but it's much easier to just write it off as human error and keep with the status quo. There is 0 justification for busting into the wrong house guns blazing....if it's major enough for assault weapons and body armor, it deserves enough attention to get the details right.

7/23/2012 2:55:26 PM

I don't think these things will ever totally stop. But that doesn't mean that it should be tolerated anymore or less of a big deal when it does happen.

7/23/2012 6:27:16 PM

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-04-22-police-chase-deaths_N.htm



deaths due to police chases, oh but this isn't all. Work in the shady record keeping, and we're talking about 300 normal people going about their own lives killed by these chases.

Quote :

"Geoffrey Alpert, a professor of criminology at the University of South Carolina who has studied police pursuits since the 1980s, says the actual number of fatalities is "three or four times higher." Another complicating factor: bystanders killed after police stop chasing suspects — even seconds afterward — are not counted."

The funny thing is... compare to the discussion up to this point



I mean really? Police chases kill 10x as many people as what there are cops killed in the line of duty. And then the cops bitch when regulations require them to have probable cause before initiating a chase (in article).

And there are literally police chases where it started over unpaid parking tickets. You get to the core of the issue, and police action today isn't you doing something wrong, it's about you not doing what they tell you to do.

Here is from the ask the cops questions thread
http://thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=628282&page=10

Quote :

""do cops appreciate that? i got pulled over on a country road once and there was no shoulder at all. i had to go almost a mile to find a good spot. cop didn't really mention it. are y'all generally cool with that?" If you went a mile, we might have some issues to discuss."

Okay, so we need to deconstruct this a little bit
1. the implicit contract between a citizen and a cop (what you need to do) isn't clear to most of us
2. cops create dangerous situations in their encounters, which are then escalated by #1

I mean, we're talking about probably one of the best cops on the force (evidenced by answering questions online), and in this very simple hypothetical situation he's already escalated it by establishing an expectation that the citizen didn't conform to (in spite of acting completely legally and being completely compliant). Could it be more obvious that something is wrong with how cops conduct business?

7/23/2012 11:29:31 PM

Hey, I was just reading cracked... and yeah, they actually get into some of this stuff in a rather amusing way.

http://www.cracked.com/article_19937_the-6-most-popular-crime-fighting-tactics-that-dont-work.html?wa_user1=2&wa_user2=Science&wa_user3=article&wa_user4=feature_module

7/23/2012 11:53:14 PM

Quote :

"BEMULLETED MAVERICK COPS"

7/24/2012 12:35:08 AM