Number Of Police Officers Shot, Killed In Line Of Duty Hits New High

The number of police shot and killed in the line of duty has reached a new high, according to statistics from the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP). 

“[A]s of midnight on 30 November, there have been 314 officers shot in the line of duty this year. Of those officers shot, 58 of them were killed by gunfire,” the FOP stated in a presentation on monthly statistics of shootings of police. 

“There have been 95 ambush-style attacks on law enforcement officers this year,” the report continued, adding that that number is more than double the number of ambush-style attacks in 2020. Those attacks resulted in 119 officers shot, with 28 fatalities, the FOP noted. 

The number of both officers shot and officers killed have already surpassed the numbers from 2020 and 2019, with a month still left in 2021. In the full year of 2020, 312 officers were shot in the line of duty, with 47 killed. In 2019, 293 officers were shot, with 50 dead. 

Texas was the state with the most shootings in the year to date, with 42 shootings of police officers. Nine states had double-digit shootings of police, including Illinois with 25 and California with 21. Five states reported a single shooting of a police officer in the year to date – Alaska, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, and West Virginia. Nine states – Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming – reported no police shootings, as did Washington, D.C. and the territories of American Samoa and Guam. 

The report went on to memorialize the 58 fallen law enforcement officers, listing their names and the date of their deaths. The list includes names like Chicago Police Officer Ella French, who was shot and killed during a routine traffic stop in August, Drug Enforcement Administration Group Supervisor Michael G. Garbo, who was shot during a routine inspection of an Amtrak train in Tuscon, Arizona, in October, and Harris County, Texas Deputy Constable Kareem Atkins, who was shot and killed responding to a disturbance call at a bar in Houston in October. 

“ENOUGH IS ENOUGH: More officers have been SHOT and KILLED this year than any other year—and there is one month left!” The National Fraternal Order of Police wrote in a tweet discussing the harrowing statistics.

“Pray for America’s Law Enforcement!” the tweet added.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH: More officers have been SHOT and KILLED this year than any other year—and there is one month left!

⚠️ 314 Officers Shot

⚠️ 58 Officers Killed by Gunfire

⚠️ Ambush Attacks on Officers Up 126% from 2020 (YTD)

Pray for America’s Law Enforcement! pic.twitter.com/Ufm87YCsd2

— National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) (@GLFOP) December 1, 2021

News of the record high shootings of police officers comes as two of America’s major cities have reached record numbers of homicides in the year 2021 to date. In Chicago, 777 people have been shot in the year to date, the Daily Wire reported. Cook County, where Chicago is located, had more than 1,000 homicides in the year to date. The number is the highest recorded total number of deaths since 1994, when the county recorded 1,141 homicides, with still a month left in the year.

In Philadelphia, 499 people had been killed as of November 23, the Daily Wire reported. That number was on track to surpass the record of 500 murders set during the crack cocaine epidemic of 1990, and possibly reach the highest number since 1960, which is as far back as police records go. A Temple University student was shot and killed over the weekend, surpassing the 500 murder mark.

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