For 13 years, traffic-related incidents have been the leading cause of fatalities for law enforcement officers. But during the first half of last year, firearms have now outpaced crashes as the primary cause, with 40 officers shot and killed.
For a Limited Time receive a
FREE Safety Special Report on the "50 Tips For More-Effective Safety Training." Receive 75 pages of useful safety information broken down into three training sections.
Download NowFollowing a 25 percent increase in 2010, the number of officer fatalities in the United States continued to rise in the first half of 2011. According to preliminary data from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, 98 officers were killed in that period, a 14 percent increase.
“This represents a troubling 33 percent increase from 2010, when 30 officers were killed by gunfire,” according to the organization. Traffic-related incidents claimed the lives of 34 officers in 2011, which is down from the previous year.
During the period, 21 officers were killed in automobile crashes, 7 were struck and killed, 5 were killed in motorcycle crashes, and 2 were struck and killed by a train while in an automobile. The mid-year findings also revealed that 32 states lost a law enforcement officer in the first half of 2011, with Texas and Florida experiencing the most deaths.