The number of police officer deaths roughly tripled from 1900 to 1920, from 40 to 150. Prohibition began in January 1920 — and with it came an organized network of crime to distribute alcohol illegally to the thirsty population. The rise of organized crime proved deadly for police. There were over 1,800 officers killed in the 1920s, the most of any decade in this century. In 1929, more than 200 police officers were killed for the first time. A year later, 244 officers were killed. This remains as the largest number of deaths of police officers in a single year. By 1933, the year Prohibition was repealed, the number of police officer deaths began to decline.
The number of police officer deaths began to climb in the 1960s and 1970s, coinciding with a jump in the violent crime rate (see Chapter 2). A complex combination of social and economic factors were at work during these decades. A generation of young people were experimenting with rock music and drugs. They were protesting the Vietnam War. Labor and civil rights groups were actively staging protests. Encounters between police and blacks were often tense and increasingly violent; blacks rioted in Detroit and other cities. Some leftist political groups were pursuing violence as a way to address some political cause (Chapter 13, Terrorism, focuses on some of these groups). Law enforcement — seen as oppressors and/or traditional authority — were invariably targets. Police officer deaths climbed from 125 in 1965 to 150 in 1966 to 180 in 1967. In 1971, a total of 238 officers were killed, the second highest total in the 100 year period.
The police recognized the need to protect themselves through new programs and better training. SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) teams originated with the Los Angeles Police Department in the 1960s when it became obvious, as the National Tactical Officers Association puts it, that "the average police officer, equipped only with a revolver and a basic training, had become especially vulnerable to the kind of organized and vicious criminal and terrorist activity that existed more frequently at that time in America." Training was indeed a critical issue. Training policies varied from state to state and even within the state itself. California was the first state to standardize the way it trained its law enforcement personnel with the creation of the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission in 1959. Other states soon followed California's lead. There was also better protection available. After several years of testing, Kevlar body armor (light-weight bulletproof vests that an officer could wear full-time) was subjected to its first field test in 1975 when it went into use in 15 urban police departments.
What has been the single largest cause of police deaths over the century? Guns. Firearms were implicated in about half of all deaths of police officers. Since the 1970s, guns are claiming more lives: 405 officers were killed in the 1970s, 426 in the 1980s, and 651 in the 1990s. Do we need stricter gun control laws in this country? Could such legislation help control police deaths? Guns claimed the lives of 6,846 officers over the last century, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF). The next highest category, auto accidents, claimed only a third of this number: 2,090.
Leading Causes of Deaths for Law Enforcement, 1900-1998
| Cause | Percent of All Deaths |
| Firearms | 49% |
| Automobile accidents | 15% |
| Motorcycle accidents | 7% |
| Struck by vehicle | 7% |
| Job-related illness | 4% |
The vast majority of these officers have been male. From 1900 to 2000, only 156 of officers killed in the line of duty have been females. The first was a jail matron in Ohio named Anna Hart killed during a July 1916 escape attempt. According to the NLEOMF, over the last 100 years the average age of officers killed was 38. The average length of service was about eight years. Recent statistics from the FBI and Department of Justice show that from 1980 to 1999, between 80-90% of those feloniously killed have been white. Black officers constitute most of the remaining deaths. Also, a growing percentage of these officers were in uniform at the time (52% in 1982, 63% in 1990 and 80% in 2000).
In the 1970s the government began to make a distinction between accidental and felonious deaths (those committed by a felon). The leading accidental cause of death, as stated above, were automobile accidents. In recent years, accidents have claimed more lives Accidental and Felonious Police Deaths than felonious actions. Automobile deaths were responsible for about half of the 1,423 police officers who died accidentally from 1980 to 2000. The number of auto accident fatalities is up slightly: 33 deaths in 1997, 48 in 1998, 41 in 1999 and 42 in 2000. Some of these vehicle accidents involved a certain type of police car: the Crown Victoria. The vehicle had been involved in a series of crashes across the country; a dozen officers have died since 1983. In October 2002, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration concluded that the Crown Victoria Police Interceptor meets federal standards that require a vehicle to withstand a rear crash at 30 mph without leaking fuel. While the vehicles are not defective, they will be made safer with the installation of gas tank shields. The shields will reduce the chances of a fire if the vehicle is struck.
An additional 279 officers were struck by other vehicles at traffic stops, directing traffic or assisting motorists. The next leading causes of death were airplane accidents and being struck by a vehicle while directing traffic or assisting a motorist, each with about 11% of the total.
More than 230 police officers were killed in the line of duty in 2001, making it the dead-liest year since 1974. Included in the total are the 70 officers killed at the World Trade Center.
Sources: Chart data from 1900-1944 comes from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund; 1945-2000 comes from Historical Statistics of the United States and Statistical Abstract of the United States, 2001; Gunshot data from http://www.odmp.org/index.php. Figures are all estimates. Data on accidental and felonious killings come from Sourcebook of Criminal Justices Online, table 3.175 and 3.179 from http://www.albany.edu/sourcebook/1995/pdf/t3179.pdf; "About the NTOA." Available online from http://www.ntoa.org/about/ntoa.html; "A History of Body Armor." Available from http://www.investors.about.com/library/investors/blforensic2.htm; "Police Training in a Democracy." Available online from http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/itdhr/1197/ijde/marinen.htm; Othon, Nancy. "Ford to Install Gas Tank Shields on Police Cars Nationwide." Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News, October 8, 2002.
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