Marion Bae, FISM News
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Data for 2021 now confirms that last year was the deadliest on record for those serving as U.S. police officers.
According to the Officer Down Memorial Page website, there were 500 law enforcement officer deaths in 2021, roughly 80 percent of which were categorized as non-felonious. Of the 399 non-felonious deaths, 362 were due to medical reasons, 339 of which reported COVID-19 as the cause of death. The Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) reports the total number of COVID-19 deaths for police officers as 869 as of January 9, 2022. Texas accounts for 199 of these fatalities, followed by Florida, 76, and California, 64.
The FOP’s website states, “While COVID-19 is without a doubt a public health crisis, it is also a public safety crisis. The FOP knew at the beginning of the pandemic that law enforcement officers on the front lines combating this pandemic…As we had feared, the virus has claimed the lives of many, and now includes a growing number of law enforcement officers.”
With medical complications being the leading cause of fatalities reported by the ODMP, gunfire and auto deaths were the next highest causes of death, claiming 64 and 59 lives respectively. All three categories rose 28 percent from 2020.
The FBI also released a report accounting for law enforcement officer deaths in 2021 from Jan. 1st to Nov. 30th.
According to the “Key Observations” section of the FBI’s 2021 infographic, “The 67 law enforcement officers feloniously killed in the first 11 months of 2021 represent a 55.8 percent increase compared to the 43 officers killed during the same period in 2020. Of the 67 felonious deaths thus far in 2021, the top 3 weapons used have been firearms (55), vehicles (6), and personal weapons (4).”
Of the 67 deaths 24 are reported as being unprovoked attacks while 8 others were ambushes, including entrapment and/or premeditation. In the 2020 FBI report 46 officers were reportedly killed in felonious attacks, 9 of which were ambushes and 2 were unprovoked.
The FBI observes the rise in unprovoked attacks by saying, “In 2021, unprovoked attacks (24) continued to outpace all other circumstances of felonious officer deaths.” This is undoubtedly a troubling trend, but unfortunately the statistics don’t stop there.
The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund keeps a list of year-to-year law enforcement deaths, starting from 1786. Though their 2021 numbers have not been reported, The Center Square reported that the preliminary number was 358 as of Dec. 28th. Those numbers and those reported by the Officer Down Memorial Page mark the highest number of police fatalities reported in history. Previously the deadliest year on record was 1930 with 312 deaths recorded. In 2020, 295 police fatalities were recorded.