124 U.S. Cops Died This Year... But Police Killed 1,125: Reports Say

Police killed about 1,125 people in the U.S. during 2015… more than nine times the number of officer fatalities suffered in the line of duty, reports say.

According to preliminary data recently compiled by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF) and released on Tuesday, 124 law enforcement officers died in the line of duty in 2015, a 4 percent increase from 2014, when 119 officers were killed.

Of the 124 officers who died this year, 52 died in traffic-related incidents, 42 were killed by gunfire and 30 died as a result of “other causes,” the NLEOMF stated in its report.

According to the NLEOMF, traffic-related incidents have been the leading cause of officer deaths in 15 of the last 20 years. This year, 52 officers were killed in traffic-related incidents this past year, which was six percent higher than the 49 who died on roadways in 2014.

Ambush attacks against officers were the second leading cause of shooting deaths in 2015, accounting for six fatalities, the NLEOMF stated.

Thirty officers died due to other causes in 2015, including 24 who suffered from job-related illnesses - mostly heart attacks - while performing their duties.

Also included among those officers were four officers who died of illnesses they contracted as a result of their rescue and recovery work following the September 11 attacks, the NLEOMF stated.

• See related article: 9/11 Animal Rescuer Dies 4 Days After Judge Denies Her Workers’ Comp Claim

“Each year as we issue this fatality report, we are reminded of the vital service and supreme sacrifice given by our nation’s law enforcement officers,” stated NLEOMF Chairman and CEO Craig Floyd. “There has been a lot of criticism and second-guessing directed at law enforcement this past year, but we must never forget that 124 officers gave up their lives for our safety and protection.”

Read the NLEOMF’s preliminary report online here.

POLICE-CAUSED DEATHS IN 2015

However, U.S. residents stood a much greater chance of being slain by a police officer rather than vice versa in 2015, according to a project spearheaded by The Guardian.

According to the U.K.-based newspaper, U.S. police killed 1,126 people nationwide last year.

Blacks suffered a fatality rate more than twice as high as whites, and Asians suffered a fatality rate less than half of Caucasians, according to the study.

The death total was reached by adding data from “traditional reporting on police reports and witness statements” and “regional news outlets, research groups and open-source reporting projects such as the websites Fatal Encounters and Killed By Police,” The Guardian stated.

The Guardian’s total included people who were shot, Tasered and struck by police vehicles, as well those who died in police custody. However, suicides and “self-inflicted” deaths during encounters with law enforcement were not counted in the study.

See the full report online here.

“The US government has no comprehensive record of the number of people killed by law enforcement,” The Guardian stated. “This lack of basic data has been glaring amid the protests, riots and worldwide debate set in motion by the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old, in Ferguson, Missouri, in August 2014.”

File photo courtesy of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund