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Alex Montecalvo
Professor Jizi
UWRT 1102-029
10 April 2016
EIP Research Essay
The total number of police officers that were killing feloniously killed in the line of duty
during 2013 was 27 officers. (2013 Law Enforcement Officer Killed & Assaulted, fbi.gov) There
was a total of 96 police officers that were killing in the line of duty during 2014. Preliminary
statistics released today by the FBI show that 51 law enforcement officers were feloniously
killed in the line of duty in 2014. This is an increase of almost 89 percent when compared to
2013. (FBI Releases 2014 Preliminary Statistics for Law Enforcement Officers Killed in the
Line of Duty, fbi.gov) The other 44 officers that were killed were of accidental deaths in the line
of duty. Form January 1st, 2016 to April 19, 2016 there have been 11 k9 units killed in the line of
duty. (Honoring Officers Killed in 2016, odmp.org) This statistic hits close to home for. My
brothers are both police officers in North Carolina. Every time they put on the uniform and badge
they do it knowingly that they might not make home to their families. I believe that it is an insult
to our police officers and police systems around America that we as citizens are killing the
people that are keeping our cities, towns, and states from criminals.
This topic is significant to others and not just me. Many families have police officers in
them and nobody wants to see someone in their family hurt. It also is affecting police officers do
their jobs. If there is always a possibility of a police officer getting killed for doing his/her job
they will begin to do their job differently. When this happens it not only affects them but it also
affects the people who respect them and want their protection. I believe that if the number of

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police officers that are killed in the line duty keeps going up we are going to see less police
presence in our everyday lives. With this also come crimes and a decrease in a sense of security
in our everyday lives.
We hear and see on the news every time an officer that has done something wrong from
police brutality to police officers involved in shooting and killing someone. But we never hear or
see about the officer that had lost his or her life in the line of duty. These officers are getting
killed for doing their job, whether it be from going on a 911 call or a routine traffic stop. This
just goes to show that some people have a problem with law enforcement officers and are willing
to kill them for doing their job rather than get caught for what they did.
When I was reading all these statistics on police officers that have been killed in the line
of duty I began to wonder how these officers were killed. I then had started digging deeper and to
how these officers were killed. It was weird to see how many of these officers that were killed
were just responding all different type of calls. The most deadly call a police officer can respond
to is a disturbance/domestic violence call. There were a total of 11 officers killed while
responding to one of these calls during 2014. (FBI Releases 2014 Preliminary Statistics for Law
Enforcement Officers Killed in the Line of Duty, fbi.gov) The number of police officers killed by
firearms is up 113% bringing the total of 17 officers killed by firearms as of April 19, 2016.
(Causes of Law Enforcement Deaths, nleomf.org) In 2014 of the 51 feloniously killed officers 46
of these officers were killed by firearms, 33 by handguns. (FBI Releases 2014 Preliminary
Statistics for Law Enforcement Officers Killed in the Line of Duty, fbi.gov) Of those 46 officers
that were killed only 5 were able to get a shot of and only 7 others had attempted to use their
weapon. (FBI Releases 2014 Preliminary Statistics for Law Enforcement Officers Killed in the
Line of Duty, fbi.gov) This shows that these officers are just not being killed they are being slain.

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They do not even have the chance to protect themselves from the attacker or attackers. This
brings up the point that police officers need better protection. But 35 of the 51 officers that were
killed were wearing body armor. (FBI Releases 2014 Preliminary Statistics for Law Enforcement
Officers Killed in the Line of Duty, fbi.gov) (Causes of Law Enforcement Deaths, nleomf.org)
To go into more detail of the 46 that were killed by firearms 35 of them were wearing body
armor.
We all ask ourselves a couple of question when we see that gun violence and repeat
offenders is on the rise. We can only put so many restrictions on people before we are taking
away their constitutional right, but of the 59 alleged offenders that were identified in connection
with the law enforcement officers feloniously killed 50 out of the 59 alleged offenders had prior
criminal arrests. (2014 Law Enforcement Officer Killed & Assaulted, fbi.gov) 11 out of the 50
alleged offenders were under judicial supervision at the time they killed the officers. (2014 Law
Enforcement Officer Killed & Assaulted, fbi.gov) How could they be under judicial supervision
and still have to ability to kill an officer?
There have many people who advocate that the violence against police officers is an
outrage. The FBI and the Uniform Crime Report have made significant contribution by keeping
track of all crimes recorded and cataloging them into a database. There are a couple of questions
that I would have for the FBI and anyone who is tired of seeing innocent police officers being
killed. What can we do to be more proactive against criminals? What can we do to protect our
officers better? Is there any way to do a more in depth risk assessments in risky situations? How
come our police officers cannot get the funding they need to buy necessary supplies such as body
armor, tasers, and other necessities?

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Another group that has brought awareness to this topic is the Nationals Law
Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. This organization is a non-profit organization that helps
us never forget the officers that have fallen in the line of duty. They hold and annual candle light
vigil to pay respect to those who have fallen in the line of duty. With the donations that they
receive are able to do many things but the main and most important thing I believe they do is
promote vital officer safety programs. The programs help officers get the necessary extra training
they need to stay safe on the job and to also do their job to the best of their abilities. A question I
would ask this organization is what kind of programs are they providing for police officers to
attend? With these donations they are receiving are they able to conduct any research on how we
can make the police officers safer while in the line of duty?
These discoveries and all this information has changed the way I think of police officers.
With my two brothers being police officers I already had a high respect for them, and knowing
that their jobs are dangerous makes me have even more respect for them. But when doing all this
research and seeing how dangerous their jobs really are. Everyone always says that being a
police officer is dangerous but no one really puts it into numbers when talking about it. But when
I found out the number of police officers killed in the line of duty was what it was I was shocked.
I never thought it was that high because the news does not cover stories about this like how they
talk about the black lives matters and LBGT community stories.
I hope that in reading this that the people reading this feel the same way I do about this
topic because it is a topic that is talked about a lot. I hope it makes the readers think differently
about how they feel and how they act towards police officers because they are doing this job
because they want to serve the community. Trust me about all police officers are not doing this
job because of the money of benefits they are doing this job because they want to.

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I am still a little bit curious about a couple things. The main thing that I am curious about
how come the news does not cover this topic like it is a big deal. The only thing that gets covered
for police officers is when they do something wrong or are accused of doing something wrong.
Just because there are a few bad police officers does not automatically make all police officers
bad. I am also curious to why so many police officers were killed while they were wearing body
armor. I know that the body armor only covers to front and back for chest. But you would think
that is where they are most likely to get shot. Another big thing that I am curious about is how
when all police are wearing body cameras what will happen to the number of police killed, will it
go up, go down, or stay the same?

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Works Cited
"Causes of Law Enforcement Deaths." National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund:.
N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2016.
"FBI Releases 2014 Preliminary Statistics for Law Enforcement Officers Killed in the Line of
Duty." FBI. FBI, 11 May 2015. Web. 19 Apr. 2016.
"Honoring Officers Killed in 2016." ODMP RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2016.
"Preliminary 2015 Fatality Statistics." National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund:.
N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2016.
"2014 Law Enforcement Officer Killed & Assaulted." FBI. FBI, 01 Oct. 2015. Web. 19 Apr.
2016.
"2013 Law Enforcement Officer Killed & Assaulted." FBI. FBI, 29 Oct. 2014. Web. 19 Apr.
2016.