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First, some good news: the number of police officers who lose their lives in the line of duty has declined steadily since the turbulent 70’s. According to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, the 70’s was the deadliest decade on record for cops. In that ten-year period, 2,240 peace officers lost their lives in service to their fellow man, and 1974 still holds the single-year record for officer deaths with 271. (1)

Now, the bad news: despite advances in officer survival training and safety-related technology over the last thirty years, far too many cops continue to die. It’s often said that the more things change, the more they remain the same. And the things that were most frequently responsible for killing cops in the 70’s remain the culprit still: fast cars and angry bullets.

This article is intended to raise awareness of the dangers of policing by providing some insight into a representative group of tragic situations that have occurred in just the first six months of 2004.

The Unfortunate Truth

The unfortunate truth is that every aspect of police work involves inherent danger. There is always the potential of peril...period.

Peace officers continue to face the greatest likelihood of being attacked when intervening in disturbances and other crimes in progress, attempting to effect arrests, and while conducting vehicle stops. In other words, the traditional tasks performed with the most frequency remain the most dangerous. But cops can ill afford to confuse “traditional” with “routine.”

The Officer Down Memorial Page reports that through June, 2004, 78 officers made the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty. And while felonious firearm attacks claimed the lives of 30 officers, 33 others were the victims of traffic collisions and vehicular assaults. (2)

Of the 24 police officers to perish in motor vehicle accidents in the first six months of ‘04, 13 of them were killed while driving to radio calls or responding to backup fellow officers. Those who died in this manner represent all age groups and experience levels, from a 20-year-old Florida deputy with 10 months on the job, to a 32-year veteran Indiana sheriff’s captain who died at age 60.

As a peace officer, you must realize that getting to the scene safely will be just one of the many challenges you will face. When you get there, you’ll have to interact with the public, and it would be wise to acknowledge that as you do so you’ll be at a distinct disadvantage. For if someone really wants to hurt you, it’s likely that s/he will have the chance to. And not only can persons harboring harmful intentions create an opportunity to put you in harm’s way, they also get to choose the time and the manner of the attack, which may occur as soon as you are ‘in range.’

Dangerous Arrivals

Already this year there has been a alarming number of fatal attacks on officers immediately upon their arrival at a scene or during their first few moments of interaction with a suspect.

• Between January and March three officers were murdered by rifle fire as they arrived at radio calls. Just two days into 2004, a police officer and a sergeant in Athens, Alabama were fatally shot as they arrived at an unknown trouble call. The 28-year-old man who killed them had a history of drug abuse and mental instability. On March 12th a Tennessee deputy sheriff died in a hail of rifle fire as he arrived at a home where a domestic assault had reportedly occurred. The suspect who killed him was the 16-year-old son of a county prosecutor who, after murdering the deputy, barricaded himself in his parents’ home and exchanged gunfire with SWAT officers before committing suicide.

• A veteran North Carolina detective suffered a similar fate on February 12th as he exited his unmarked unit to talk to a man he saw standing in a field firing a shotgun. The 18-year-old suspect later said he’d panicked, fearing that he would be arrested for violating the terms of his probation.

• On February 20th a Los Angeles Police Officer died after being shot while investigating a domestic dispute. The victim officer and his partner contacted a man with whom a woman was reportedly having problems. As the officers approached the suspect to search him, the man ran into another room, armed himself and shot the officer twice. The 32-year-old suspect, a gang member and parolee with a 16-year criminal history, fled the scene but was arrested within a few hours. He later hanged himself in a jail cell.

" I don't wanna go..."

Persons facing arrest or detention are often willing to do anything to avoid incarceration, and officers may face the greatest danger when attempting to take them into custody at their homes. There are more tragic examples to prove this point:

• Attempts to serve arrest warrants resulted in three officers being fatally shot in two separate incidents in Pennsylvania. Occurring less than two weeks apart in March, two Bradford County deputies were murdered by gunfire in one case, and in the other, a Philadelphia Judicial District Warrant Officer was slain and two fellow officers sustained gunshot wounds as they attempted to arrest a man who failed to appear in court to answer rape charges.

• On April 4th, a Buncombe County, North Carolina Sheriff’s Sergeant was mortally wounded when he and fellow deputies attempted to serve an involuntary commitment order on a 56-year-old man who had been involved in a domestic disturbance earlier in the evening. The suspect, who was hiding in bushes outside his house, killed the sergeant with a shotgun blast. Soon thereafter, the man committed suicide.

• On the afternoon of June 17th, three Birmingham, Alabama, Police Officers were fatally shot as they tried to serve a misdemeanor arrest warrant on a man at the row house where he lived. In the apartment, which was known as a gathering place for crackheads, an accomplice armed himself with an assault rifle and opened fire on the officers. The 24-year-old killer was said to be “gloating” when he later confessed to the shootings.

Suspects who attack, and all too often kill, cops are frequently under the influence of drugs, alcohol or at least, emotion. Though the level of their impairment may not be immediately obvious, the danger faced by officers is increased due to these persons’ unpredictability.

• On February 7th, a Marion County, Florida Deputy was murdered by an elderly man after arriving at the subject’s home to check his welfare. The deputy reportedly realized that the 74-year-old man was emotionally unstable, so he disengaged and called for backup. After other deputies arrived on the scene, the deputy tried to reestablish contact with the man and was fatally shot through a window. Return fire killed the suspect.

It’s not just assigned calls that place officers in jeopardy. Self-initiated activity, particularly vehicle pullovers, also pose significant dangers.

• Two young Detroit Police Officers lost their lives after stopping a pickup truck at about 2:00 a.m. on February 16th. As the officers sat in their patrol car, apparently conducting a computer inquiry, the suspect exited his pickup truck and ambushed them with a .40 caliber handgun. The cop killer fired twenty-two rounds…the officers never got a chance to return even one.

• On March 13th a Huntington, Texas officer died from gunshot wounds he sustained the previous day after making a traffic stop. The suspect, who had a felony narcotics warrant, drew a handgun unexpectedly and shot the lawman as he approached him on foot.

• The good fortune enjoyed by the Merced, California Police Department to have never lost an on duty officer to violence in its 115-year history came to an abrupt end on April 15th when one of the city’s finest was shot and killed by a reputed gang member during a traffic stop.

Foot chases and pedestrian encounters also claim police lives with some regularity. An example of each:

• On February 12th an Albany, New York Police Lieutenant succumbed to gunshot wounds he sustained during a foot pursuit of a bank robber on December 23rd, ’03. During the chase the suspect turned and opened fire, striking the lieutenant three times, with one round entering his torso between the panels of his vest. Christmas will never been the same for his widow and two daughters.

• On April 10th two plainclothes San Francisco officers saw a man acting suspiciously and approached him in their vehicle. When they called out to the man he turned around and opened fire with an AK-47, killing one officer and wounding the other. The suspect was later apprehended.

To protect and serve...Wal-mart?

Another unfortunate truth is that in many parts of this country peace officers are not adequately compensated and must work a second job to support their families. Historically, murderous attacks on moonlighting cops are relatively common. This year is no different.

• An officer with the U.S. Virgin Islands Police Department died on April 26th from gunshot wounds sustained nine days earlier during a robbery at a restaurant where he was providing security. After the officer confronted an armed suspect who entered the restaurant and demanded money, three accomplices entered the business from the rear and shot him several times.

• A 27-year veteran of the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was killed with her own service weapon while attempting to arrest a shoplifting suspect at a Wal-Mart store on May 22nd. The 51-year-old female lieutenant had gotten one handcuff on a man who’d stolen two disposable cameras when he knocked her down, took her pistol and then took her life. The man also shot a store security guard and a customer who were trying to assist the officer. Lt. Vickie Wax became the second Louisiana officer to be disarmed and killed while working a part-time job so far this year. (The situation that claimed the life of an Orleans Parish Deputy Sheriff is described in a previous Live to Retire posting titled “Deadly Disarmings.”)

The number of officers to be disarmed and murdered with their own sidearms during the first six months of ’04 stands at four.

Though the motivation to attack and murder police officers may vary among the suspects who commit these deplorable acts, cases from California and Michigan serve as reminders that simply wearing the uniform may make you a target.

• On April 21st in Pomona, a uniformed California Highway Patrol Officer was fatally ambushed after leaving a courthouse where he’d testified in traffic cases. The 16-year-old who was later arrested for the murder admitted that he killed the officer for no other purpose than to gain notoriety within his street gang. The CHP commissioner voiced the despair felt by many when he said, “To take someone's life to increase your status in a gang of criminals makes no sense at all…what a sad state of affairs."

• A Sterling Heights, Michigan, officer died on June 5th after being ambushed the previous day while sitting in his patrol car in a shopping center parking lot writing a report. The man who opened fire on the officer with a shotgun reportedly did so in order to take the officer’s handgun.

I was hopeful that after 64 police deaths occurred in the first five months of this year the law enforcement community might enjoy a brief reprieve, but it wasn’t to be. Thirteen more cops lost their lives in June, with 8 of them being slain by felonious gunfire between June 2nd and 18th:

• On June 2nd, an off-duty Washington D.C. police sergeant died after exchanging gunfire with a 16-year-old boy who attempted to rob him. The suspect also sustained fatal injuries.

• On June 5th a Reading, Pennsylvania, officer was slain after he and three other officers stopped a car occupied by a man believed to have been involved in an earlier shooting. As the officers waited for uniformed backup, the suspect exited his vehicle, and using it for cover, opened fire, striking the victim officer in the head.

• Sadly, the three officers killed in Birmingham were not the only ones to die on June 17th. A 31-year veteran of the Jackson, Tennessee Police Department was fatally shot by a robbery suspect as the man fled from a crash following a high speed car chase.

• The following day, a Grand Prairie, Texas police sergeant was murdered while he and another officer checked on a van that had been left running overnight in the parking lot of a store. The occupant of the vehicle also shot the patrolman as he tried to rescue his fallen sergeant. The suspect was killed by his return fire.

As a grim reminder that danger can be lurking anywhere, fratricide continues to claim police lives:

On June 15th., a Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff succumbed to a gunshot wound sustained six days earlier when a colleague accidentally shot him as they confronted a man firing what turned out to be a pellet gun. The deputy became the second peace officer this year to be tragically slain by ‘friendly fire.” The first, an officer in Prattville, Alabama, died after being shot during a training exercise on January 14th

I wrote earlier that every aspect of police work places officers in peril. Though this article focused on fatal wounds inflicted rapidly by external forces, internal ones may prove every bit as deadly over the long haul. For another unfortunate truth is that you may survive a series of serious attacks of the typical variety over the course of your career only to succumb to one attributable in large part to your chosen profession: a heart attack. Of the 78 officers to die during the first six months of this year, 10 of them suffered fatal heart attacks! From California to New York, Nebraska to Florida, officers, who on average had reached the ripe old age of 49, fell prey to the stress and strain of trying to save the world…or at least improve the quality of life in their communities.

And in case you haven’t heard, career cops who are fortunate enough to live to retire face a risk of illness and mortality significantly greater than the general population. In an article posted on The Police Policies Study Council’s website, it’s reported that the life expectancy for non-police males is 73 years. For policemen, it’s 53 years! In this study it’s also documented that 50% of police officers die from heart disease within five years of retirement. (3)

The truth is indeed an unfortunate one: the perils of policing face officers while responding to calls and upon arriving there. On duty and off. In the earliest stages of their careers and to the very end of them…and beyond.

References
(1) The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund website (www.nleomf.com)

(2) The Officer Down Memorial Page (www.odmp.org)

(3) Shift Work and Officer Survival, The Police Policies Study Council, (www.theppsc.org)

Doyle “D.T.” Wright
"DT" retired from the Riverside County, California, Sheriff’s Department, and since 1998 has traveled throughout the country to provide law enforcement training related to officer survival, high risk warrant planning and execution, police action shootings and tactical response to dynamic events.

If you have an immediate need for information, please contact us by phone at: 317-733-1971 or we can be reached by email at: dtw169@livetoretire.com