Broad & Liberty ran my piece on the FBI’s report on law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty.
You can read
the piece via the link below or the text below:
Paul Davis: Latest report on officers killed in the line of duty
On May 12th, the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program released the "Officers Killed and Assaulted in the Line of Duty, 2024 Special Report."
According to
the FBI, the report provides preliminary counts of law enforcement officers
killed and assaulted in 2024, as well as an in-depth analysis of law
enforcement officers who were killed or assaulted from 2015 through 2024. The
report was based on the data voluntarily provided by law enforcement agencies
to the FBI’s UCR Program.
“In 2024, 64
officers were feloniously killed in the line of duty. That is consistent with
the number of officers feloniously killed the previous two years; however, the
rate of assaults against officers increased from 2022 to 2024. Firearms were
the most reported weapon used in fatal incidents,” the FBI stated. “Information
about offenders of officer felonious killings in 2024 show there were 61
offenders reported for the felonious deaths. Of these offenders, 95.9% were
male, 57.9% were white, and 32 offenders were reported to have a prior criminal
record.
“For each of
the 10 years under consideration, the South region had the most line-of-duty
deaths. There was a 45% increase in the deaths in that region in 2024 (29
deaths) compared to 2023 (20 deaths). Agencies reported 85,730 officer assaults
in 2024 indicating a rate of 13.5 assaults per 100 officers, marking the
highest officer assault rate in the past 10 years.”
According to
the FBI, the number of officers assaulted and injured by firearms has increased,
reaching a 10-year high in 2023 with approximately 500 officers assaulted and
injured by firearms. In 2024, the number of officers assaulted and injured by
firearms dropped to approximately 457 officers. Most accidental deaths of law
enforcement officers from 2020 to 2024 can be attributed to motor vehicle
accidents.
To put a
face on the law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty, one can look
at Philadelphia Police Officer Jamie Roman (seen in the above photo), who died in September of 2024.
Officer Roman succumbed to the wounds he received after being shot in
June of 2024 during a traffic stop in Kensington. Roman was shot in the neck when
one of the four passengers in the car Roman and his partner stopped jumped out
of the car and raced away, firing three shots at Roman as he fled. The alleged shooter
was identified as 36-year-old Ramon Rodriguez Vazquez. According to police,
Vazquez was driving an unregistered vehicle without a driver's license.
Vazquez was arrested and charged with
attempted murder of a law enforcement officer and numerous other offenses,
including aggravated assault and criminal trespass. Vasquez's charges were upgraded
to murder.
Over my years of covering the cops, many police officers have told
me that car stops are one of the most dangerous acts they perform. Especially
on a dark night in an isolated area. The officers never know what to expect
when they pull over a car.
Are the driver and passengers armed and dangerous? Are they wanted for
serious crimes? Will they fire on the officers rather than risk being arrested?
Is the driver drunk, belligerent and potentially violent? Is the driver so high
on drugs that he is psychotic? These are some of the questions going through
police officers’ heads as they walk towards the pulled over vehicle.
While out on my many “ride-alongs” with Philly cops, I’ve witnessed
the officers approach the cars they pulled over with apprehension, but also with
cool professionalism. During many of the car stops I’ve witnessed, another
police car often rolled up and parked nearby, knowing that a brother or sister
officer might need back-up.
I recall one incident in Center City some years ago when I was out
on a ride-along with a young police officer. He pulled over a car because the
driver was driving erratically. The driver got out of the car and began to
curse the officer for pulling him over. The driver was clearly intoxicated. The
driver became violent, and he had to be subdued by the police officer and his
sergeant, who happened to drive by and stopped to observe the car stop. The
driver was arrested for a DUI and other charges.
Thankfully, the drunk and/or high driver was not armed with a gun
or another weapon. But he was crazy strong, and it took the two police officers
to put him on the ground and cuff him.
Sadly, police officers are murdered and assaulted by gang members
and other brazen criminals who do not fear prosecution and imprisonment, thanks
in part to progressive district attorneys like Larry “Let ‘Em Loose” Krasner, radical
politicians and others who publicly demonize the police.
Police officers are insulted and abused in public, and they have to
take it. We’ve all seen the videos of gang members attacking police officers. This
fearless lack of disrespect towards police officers leads, in my view, some criminals
to murder cops without remorse.
But we now have a bold law & order president. He supports the
cops, and he has the support of the cops.
Paul Davis, a Philadelphia writer and frequent contributor to Broad + Liberty, also contributes to Counterterrorism magazine and writes the “On Crime” column for the Washington Times. He can be reached at pauldavisoncrime.com.
Note: You can read my other Broad & Liberty stories via the link below:
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