The Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) recently released a report on the number of police officers shot and/or killed in the line of duty in 2023. As of December 31, 2023, there have been 378 officers shot in the line of duty, while 46 of those were killed. A somber topic — to be sure — but one which serves as a sober reminder of the danger law enforcement faces.
The FOP’s year-end numbers reflect a 14% increase in police officers shot compared to 2022, a 9% increase compared to 2021, and a whopping 60% increase since 2018.
Shockingly, out of the 378 shootings, 115 of them were “ambush-style attacks” which resulted in 20 fatalities. The FOP defines an ambush-style attack as “when an officer is struck by gunfire without any warning or opportunity to defend themselves.” Notably, these numbers DO NOT account for incidents in which police officers are shot at but not hit.
What makes these ambush-style attacks particularly disturbing is that 20% of these incidents between 2010 – 2016 occurred while the officer was simply sitting inside his patrol car, and “56 percent were not on a call or engaged in any enforcement activity. Many of these officers were simply eating, sitting at a post, or in five cases, targeted or killed while at their home or on their way home,” according to a report from the DOJ’s Office of Community Oriented Policing.
Most of us understand the dangers law enforcement officers face every day, and appreciate their role in a civilized society. Regretfully, the criminal element (and their situational, opportunist counterparts) have steadily eroded and undermined law and order since 2014 (the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Missouri comes to mind) to the present day, in my view. The death of Eric Garner in New York, Freddie Gray in Baltimore, and the national riots during the summer of 2020 that occurred after the death of George Floyd have undoubtedly aggravated the problem.
Rising crime rates and a general perception of lawlessness (primarily in urban communities, but increasingly in suburban ones as well) is obvious to anyone paying attention. Moreover, many elected prosecutors across the United States have adopted prosecutorial philosophies that contribute to the chronic weakening of law and order, and, as a direct consequence — justice.
An erosion of faith in the police and its legitimacy is not far removed from a dangerous loss of reverence for the rule of law itself. We all feel its pernicious effects as members of our communities at large, I as a lover and servant of the law, but none more than the 378 police officers shot and 46 killed last year alone who live and feel it more than most of us ever will.
Abraham Lincoln once called the law the “political religion” of the United States. I pray in earnest under its tenets — for more faith in its everlasting pursuit of justice — and for its loyal guardians.
Here’s to a safer 2024.
John Q. Prosecutor