The Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) today announced its report Deadly Calls and Fatal Encounters, which was produced by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF) and funded by the COPS Office and provides analysis of 684 cases involving line-of-duty deaths over a five-year period (2010-2014).
The purpose of this report is to identify the situations that present officers the most risk and make recommendations to enhance officer safety. For example, this report found that calls related to domestic disputes and domestic-related incidents resulted in the highest number of officer fatalities. The study also concluded that there are high risks associated with traffic stops.
“As President Obama has repeatedly stated, ‘Officers deserve to go home at the end of their shifts,’” said COPS Office Director Ronald Davis. “This invaluable report is designed to help us understand the risk that law enforcement officers face and to help us develop best practices to reduce officer fatalities.”
The report provides three steps that law enforcement agencies can immediately implement: encourage officers to slow down when responding to calls (specifically, Officer Needs Assistance calls), wear seatbelts, and wear issued body armor.
The COPS Office, headed by Director Ronald Davis, is a federal agency responsible for advancing community policing nationwide. Since 1995, the COPS Office has invested more than $14 billion to advance community policing, including grants awarded to more than 13,000 state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies to fund the hiring and redeployment of more than 127,000 officers and provide a variety of knowledge resource products including publications, training, and technical assistance. For additional information about the COPS Office, please visit www.cops.usdoj.gov.
Deadly Calls and Fatal Encounters, is available here: http://www.nleomf.org/programs/cops/cops-report.html.
