Policing is less deadly than it used to be, but Columbus shooting a reminder of job's dangers

It's not one of the nation's most dangerous jobs, and statistics suggest it's a career that may actually be getting safer rather than deadlier.

Policing is widely considered a perilous occupation. But loggers, fishers, roofers, and truck drivers are all more likely to die on the job, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

There's something the statistics don't capture though, researchers and current and former law enforcement officials emphasized to The Dispatch. It's the threat of violence police face in their jobs that other risky occupations simply don't deal with on a day-to-day basis, said Michael Sierra-Arévalo, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin.

Unlike other occupations where deaths are most often accidental, when police are killed it's usually because they were targeted, said Sierra-Arévalo, who has authored studies on violence and shootings against law enforcement.

Read More: How often are police shot? Here's what we know in wake of Columbus shooting

"The probability of dying on the job is higher if you're a truck driver ... because you can have high-speed accidents. It's just the number of miles driven," Sierra-Arévalo said. "But the specific threat of somebody violently killing you is higher in policing than in almost any other occupation. I think there's a perception that it's a dangerous job because it is."

The shooting of a Columbus police officer during a shootout on Interstate 70 east following an armed robbery spree and chase July 6 involving three suspects highlighted the specter of violence against police for the first time in three years. The last time a Columbus cop was shot on duty was July 10, 2020, and the last time one was killed on the job was about seven years ago in 2016.

Those types of incidents simply aren't the same as examples of a roofer falling off of a house or a fisherman running into troubling waters while at sea, said Brian Steel, a Columbus police officer and executive vice president for the Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge No. 9.

While Steel acknowledges that other occupations may be more deadly, he said the lack of violence a roofer or fisherman may face make them too different to compare to police work in the first place.

"Usually it's an accident," he said of deaths on the job in other fields. "The difference for the fisherman is that shark is not looking at 20 years in prison."

Some 'cautiously optimistic' about a decline in violence against police

It's no secret that policing has come under intense scrutiny in recent years, especially following incidents in which unarmed Black men — such as George Floyd Jr. in Minneapolis in 2020 — were killed at the hands of officers.

Coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic, rising tensions across the country led to what appears to have been a two-year bump in law enforcement deaths, according to data tracked by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

Between 2019 and 2021, deaths of law enforcement rose from 163 to 623 — a 282% incerease, according to the fund. Those numbers fell in 2022 to 224 deaths, the fund said.

As of the end of June, 52 law enforcement fatalities were reported in 2023. That marks a 66% decline from the same time period in 2022, according to the fund.

“There is no good news in reporting the death of even a single police officer,” said the fund's interim CEO Bill Alexander.“Yet based on this preliminary data, we are cautiously optimistic that conditions may be improving for our law enforcement professionals who willingly put themselves at risk to serve and protect.”

Officer deaths due to shootings are also down 24% so far in 2023, with 25 reported in the first six months of the year compared to 33 in the same period in 2022, according to the fund.

Read More: Why haven't the Columbus police officers involved in last week’s shootout been named?

The decline represents a promising "positive trend," said Alexander, who previously worked as a member of the police force in Prince George's County, an area of Maryland that borders Washington, D.C. Although the numbers appear to be dropping, Alexander said it's still concerning that so many people "take it upon themselves to either purposely harm or evade law enforcement."

While Steel said he's glad fewer officers are losing their lives, he fears the declining number of fatalities doesn't mean there is an overall decrease in violence against police. Instead, Steel said law enforcement has just gotten better at figuring out how to handle situations, including when fellow officers are injured.

Police used to often wait for paramedics to arrive at a scene. Now, they'll often drive a fellow injured officer to the hospital themselves if it means shaving minutes off of travel time, he said.

For example, Steel said, the Columbus police officer shot July 6, was taken to OhioHealth Grant Medical Center in downtown Columbus by his partner in a cruiser.

"Our officer the other day would have been dead if his partner didn't transport him," Steel said. "We're all getting trained differently these days instead of standing around and waiting for an ambulance."

Latest shooting a reminder of the dangers of policing

Despite the recent shooting against a Columbus officer, there's no compelling evidence that shootings of police have dramatically increased in recent years, a study that concluded in 2019 found.

The study, which was co-authored by Sierra-Arévalo, was published in the journal Criminology & Public Policy and found 1,467 shootings of police occurred from 2014 through 2019. That amounted to an average of about 245 shootings of police a year, according to the study, which analyzed both fatal and nonfatal shootings of law enforcement with data from the Gun Violence Archive.

The study also found that most assaults of police officers involving a gun are not fatal.

Separate data has also shown that police are actually more like to shoot and kill a civilian than they are to be shot themselves. While 224 officers were killed on the job in 2022, at least 1,200 Americans were killed by police that same year, according to the nonprofit Police Violence Report, which tracks deadly use of force by law enforcement and outcomes.

Despite the data, a narrative that there is a "war on cops" has taken hold and persisted. But using such heated rhetoric to drum up support for police is likely to actually damage the profession in the long-term as departments struggle to recruit new officers, Sierra-Arévalo said.

"We still conclude that look, there was a clear spike here (after the death of George Floyd)," Sierra-Arévalo said. "But to call this a war is at best an exaggeration and at worst, cynical political gamesmanship."

Both Alexander and Steel agreed that phrases such as "war on cops," are overblown.

Even after protests against police in 2020, Steel said he thinks most Columbus residents are supportive of law enforcement. They want police in their neighborhoods, patrolling and keeping them safe, he said.

Most interactions Steel said he's had as an officer with central Ohioans have been positive. Still, that doesn't make shootings of officers like the one July 6 any easier to stomach, he said.

While three years have passed by in between shootings of Columbus police officers, they serve as a reminder of how quickly things on the job can go south, Steel said. Those shootings stick with police, he said, even if they're uncommon.

"It kind of resonates with guys and its a reminder," Steel said. "We're trained for this job, but it's in the back of your mind all day."

mfilby@dispatch.com

@MaxFilby

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Even after Columbus officer shooting, policing becoming less dangerous