FBI Data Says 2015 Was One Of The Safest Years For The Police Officer, Critics Say Information Is Not A True Reflection Of What Is Really Happening On the Streets Of America

2015 was one of the safest years to be a police officer in decades, according to data released by the FBI this week. This followed a persistent trend of low numbers of officers that have died while on duty, the Huffington Post is reporting.

The FBI’s initial statistics revealed that 41 police officers were killed in the line of duty in 2015. This number is a drastic reduction of nearly 20 percent from 2014, when 41 officers were killed in the line of duty. Out of those 41 officers, only three were killed in the line of fire. The rest were fatally run down by vehicles.

This data contradicts what some police union bosses and conservative media outlets have been touting to the rest of America, saying that officers are perennially under siege and are being killed with reckless abandon.

‘It takes a special person to risk so much for people who care so little…’#NationalPoliceWeek#BlueLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/rqIcCcTxEK

— Linda Suhler, Ph.D. (@LindaSuhler) May 16, 2016

The last two years has witnessed a clarion call for police reform in the wake of the Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, Missouri, as well other high-profile incidents where police have used brutal and in some cases deadly force against civilians. Movements like Black Lives Matter have been in the forefront calling for police officers to be held culpable for their misdeeds.

Critics have said groups like the Black Lives Matter movement promote violence against the men in blue and have contributed towards the war on cops. This misconception has led to a lopsided perception of the issue that cops are being killed day by day. In 2015, a Rasmussen poll revealed that 58 percent of voters believed there was a war being waged against the police. The data released by the FBI disputes these claims.

Today is National Peace Officer Memorial Day.???????? We honor those that paid the ultimate sacrifice #BlueLivesMatter???????? pic.twitter.com/tsbBlFLbuR

— Veterans For Trump (@Veteran4Trump) May 15, 2016

David Harris, a professor of law at Pittsburgh University, said that the belief that the police accountability movement is not responsible for a spike in police officers’ deaths, public opinion to the contrary.

“Any felonious death of a police officer is a tragedy, but the data released by the FBI show that the police officers’ job is not becoming more deadly. That the job is growing more dangerous because of protests against police or because of the demand for reform to police practices is simply wrong… belief to the contrary may be sincere, but it has no basis in fact.”

On average, 64 law enforcement officers have lost their lives under criminal circumstances every year since 1980. However, the last three years have witnessed a low average of fatal attacks on police officers. 2013 goes down in history as the safest year in recent history for police officers. 2015 ties with 2008 in second place.

Despite the encouraging numbers, William J. Johnson, the executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations, sees things differently. He told reporters that the statistics did little or nothing for the police officer trying to maintain law and order on the streets of America. He said police officers were “always likely to be attacked without any prior warning.” He argued that the data of the FBI was out of date and not a true reflection of what was really happening. Johnson said the first few months of the year would lend credence to the fact, “attacks, including murder by gunfire, are up sharply in 2016.”

The Officer Down Memorial Page, an independent website that tracks deaths in law enforcement as far back as 100 years, says that there has been a rise in officer deaths in 2016, with 17 officers fatally killed this year already. ODMP reports that with the pace officers are losing their lives so far in 2016, it will make a mockery of the historic lows of 2015.

Criminologist Philip Stinson of Bowling Green State University warned against reaching short-term conclusions with data. He opined that while it was heartening that officer fatalities were nothing compared to the 1970s when gun-related police deaths were six times what they are today, it did little to reduce the dangers police officers faced every day.

[Image via Shutterstock/1000 words]