Officer Risk by Assignment

By looking at Officer assignment, I am attempting to find a correlation between specific duties and risk. During the analysis of the 2007 FBI Crime Statistics (Uniform Crime Reports), I made a discovery. Before we get to the unexpected, let’s cover the exected.

Here’s the breakdown of LEOs feloniously killed during 2007:

•57 LEOs killed
•2-Officer Vehicle – 2 (4%)
•1-Officer Vehicle, Alone – 14 (25%)
•1-Officer Vehicle, Assisted – 24 (42%)
•Foot Patrol, Alone – 0 (0%)
•Foot Patrol, Assisted – 0 (0%)
•Other (Detectives, Undercover, etc), Alone – 2 (4%)
•Other (Detectives, Undercover, etc), Assisted – 9 (16%)
•Off Duty – 6 (11%)
Take a moment and look at the data again. Anything jump out at you? I’ll get to it shortly.

One tidbit is that over the past ten years only 5 LEOs were killed while walking the beat (that’s less than 1%!). I don’t know how many departments still routinely condct foot patrols anymore, but it certainly appears safer than most other assignments. Plus, it’ll keep you in shape.

But other than that semi-interesting nugget, there wasn’t anything ground breaking in regards to assignement. However, if you look at the number of LEO’s who were assisted at the time of death (meaning another LEO was on the scene) you will account for 35 of the 57.

Intuitively, I would have thought that officers would be killed more often when they were alone. Why would it would be the opposite? From previous analysis, we know that more officers were killed during Arrest situations than any other. LEO’s will routinely call for assistance during these encounters which may account for some of the answer.

I’ll submit that the arrival of an assisting officer doesn’t cause violent assault, but the data shows that it absolutely doesn’t prevent it either. Officers need to condition themselves to prepare for violent encounters regardless of how much backup is around. The tendency is to lower your guard when you have help on scene. You relax, believing that with the presence of additional Law Enforcement, the subject will be more apt to comply with your commands.

Simply not true. Last year, 61% of LEOs killed had assistance on-scene…and died anyway. To enhance survival, LEOs must focus on the threat and maintain unwavering situational awareness. Failure to do so is quite literally fatal. Not only are you jeopardizing yourself, but everyone around you.

Mindset is one of the fundamentals, along with marksmanship and training. None of these can be ignored. In my mind, proper training for officers must include working with other LEOs on scene. With perfect training it will be easier for LEOs to remain switched on to the scene and their backup. And again, this training should be primarily focused on low-light, no-light situations. Amateurs train standing in the sunshine, professionals train at night in adverse weather.

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