During the calendar year of 2022, the number of line-of-duty officer deaths in the U.S. was 246, swelled somewhat by the COVID-19 epidemic. Covid deaths were in the line of duty as well as those who died at the hands of assailants because police officers could not hunker down and avoid public contact like civilians did. But the number who died from senseless violent actions totaled 78, with 64 officers dying as result of gun violence, and 14 from assaults by vehicle.
Officers love the job, but they have to deal with one of the most unpredictable creatures on earth. Animals act on instinct and are at least somewhat predictable, but officers deal with people, and there is absolutely nothing that they won’t do, and no way of predicting their actions.
The officer works in one of the only occupations where a person is hated and sometimes targeted for death simply because of his job, and 12 officers died as a result of cowards waiting in ambush in 2022. Like the one in Floyd County, Kentucky, who carefully planned an ambush and opened fire with a rifle on police officers before they had even contacted him. It took several hours for the officers to even determine exactly where the shots were coming from. When it was over, he had shot and killed three police officers and a K-9 and wounded five more.
Officers today are forced to deal with unruly people who were never disciplined and refuse to take the blame for their own actions. Many were raised by parents who instilled in them a sense of entitlement and refused to let them think that they could be wrong. They then entered a school system that is prohibited from teaching them right from wrong using the very foundation for our laws — the 10 Commandments of the Bible.
Also, the officer has one of the only occupations where a legitimate and honest attempt to do his job properly can result in his being charged with a crime. If someone refuses to comply with requests or follow instructions and reaches into his clothing, or into a vehicle, the officer has no idea what he’s reaching for. If it’s a gun, and the officer waits too long to find out, that officer is possibly dead.
The time between a person grabbing a gun and firing it can be a fraction of a second. If the officer responds too quickly, and it’s not a gun, the officer may unknowingly shoot an unarmed person. The decision has to be made and carried out in a split second, and the outcome can result in the officer being either a hero, branded a criminal or dead.
In many officer-involved shootings, a segment of today’s public automatically assumes that it was bias against the person’s race or ethnicity that caused the officer to shoot. They won’t accept the probability, or even the possibility, that it was only a natural act of self-preservation.
The officer is sworn to uphold and enforce the law, but all too often, he has to fight politicians, such as mayors and city councilors trying to defund the police, which does not work. In many cities today, the charges he files are thrown out by an overly political prosecutor or an activist judge who has wrongly politicized the law.
Today, a loudmouthed few have succeeded in demonizing the police, convincing gullible people that since a minuscule number of the nearly 700,000 officers in this country use excessive force, then all of them must do the same.
Civil service tests in Lima that used to attract over a hundred applicants now attract ten or less. Since only about one out of five original applicants are qualified, there just are not enough suitable people to fill the positions. You’re left with two unacceptable alternatives — operate shorthanded or lower the requirements. Unqualified people do an unacceptable job, and operating shorthanded results in less service to the public, less officer safety and more crime.
The laws enforced by local police are the thread that holds the fabric of our society together. Without those laws and someone to enforce them, we would have anarchy and complete chaos.
Don Stratton is a retired inspector for the Lima Police Department. His column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Lima News editorial board or AIM Media, owner of The Lima News.
