"it's time to quit glorifying the police and look at their jobs not as "service" but as a career. "

I wish we could glorify the officers but hold them to strict standards. In all areas of the law, citizens may be forgiven for minor infractions, going "five over" the limit of whatever law we're talking about, but not on-duty police officers.

What I just said, though, is a moot point because we have a more serious problem with policing, and a lot of that is tied to general acceptance of intrusive gov't.

collecting this kind of data might still be too new to be able to show us much in the way of trends..

How many "careers" have the responsibility and requirement of protecting the lives of others. How many require you to engage with the most dangerous, violent elements among us? I don't think they are above the law, don't get me wrong, but their job is riskier than most. Oil riggers, fisherman, roofers, steel workers, miners, and such too, but dealing with nut jobs for a living is its own job of danger and if they can stop a threat, they should.

I brought that up because, again, anti gun people love to quote numbers about how many guns (not gun owners...guns, as if they grew legs and a trigger finger) have killed people, without mentioning the reason. Self defense? Robbery? Home invasion? It's always implied that the death wasn't justified or was an accident. And the other thing that's never factored in is how many LIVES HAVE BEEN SAVED, or crimes stopped, by someone who carries. Often once a criminal realizes their intended victim is armed they flee. So, I think this is a huge part of the picture when considering statistics in this arena. Why would you want to ignore the positive?

with the total number of firearms deaths in the us around 11k that means that the police account for nearly 10%

granted, this makes sense as in Seattle they accounted for like 22.5 % of people shot and killed.

Oh fuck no. I don't trust them totally... and i don't depend on them to protect me. I think some are power mongers, but not all of them. I don't trust a blanket number to accurately show the truth. Anti gun groups are notorious for throwing numbers around to make their case but they lump all sorts of situations into their number bag that shouldn't be there. That was my point. I'm no cheerleader for cops, but if their life is being threatened by an aggressor then they have a right to defend it. As does anyone. Also.. who's the one behind this stat? Sharpton?

What is the percentage of police that are doing the killing? Has this changed? Do we have more rogue cops or fewer doing more killing? Is it more prevalent and widespread among the force? Though violent crimes are down, are assaults against police up or down? Are more people resisting arrest? Are stupid laws like charging people for selling single cigarettes on the rise and forcing the police to engage more? Since these statistics are not collected uniformly and the time-span is short what can be definitively derived from them? " there is no reliable national database for keeping track of the number of people killed by police each year. The FBI tracks homicides by law enforcement officers, but participation is voluntary, and many agencies don’t participate."

Admittedly, it does not look good... The police may need to police their own better, but I think the government is creating tension and contributing. they give the orders, authorize military tactics, provide military style equipment, make the laws and are creating a police state.

Stay safe everyone.

perhaps. but does it come at a terrible cost? are police collection arms for the government? do they see themselves as omnipotent? what's going to happen when four of them bang on your door screaming POLICE! Are you going to trust their judgement? would you feel safe?

how many lives saved? we always use this as an argument-to the point of ignoring what's going on in our cities all around us with police over-kill(pun meant). .006% killed by fire in the line of duty- a fair comparison would be what is the probability of dying for men? let's look at many other professions...it's time to quit glorifying the police and look at their jobs not as "service" but as a career.
well funny thing, that...the government does not keep statistics on this....citizens have to cobble together this information. In the meantime, they keep clear statistics on police deaths and why. There are over 1M police officers in the US-this does not include, FBI,CIA, HHS, TSA and military. 58 deaths last year...as far as safety statistics goes for a career....

Maybe the lower crime rate is related to having less murderers on the street, in jail or dead, thanks to cops... ?

I need more than numbers. For example, how many were suicide by cop, or hostage situations, or being an imminent threat to the life of another (including a cop). Also, I would like the number of how many lives they saved. And how many cops have been killed in the line of duty.

Correction : 1029 deaths by police officers