The 62 fatalities mark a shocking 32% increase over just two years ago. The overall figure of 331 hit by gunfire was up 6% from 2020.
FOP President Patrick Yoes noted that the previous 12 months “has been one of the most violent years for law enforcement in recent history due to the increase of violence directed towards law enforcement officers as well as the nationwide crime crisis.”
Yoes laid the blame squarely on the shoulders of “pandering prosecutors and cynical politicians.”
The overall numbers were slightly lower than 2021’s record 346 officers shot and 63 killed.
The FOP reported the alarming trend of “ambush-style” attacks on officers nationwide. Across the country, 89 of these assaults were reported which resulted in 126 officers being shot in this cowardly manner.
Over half of 2022’s total fatalities, 32, were caused by ambush attacks.
One particularly violent five-day period in October saw 13 officers shot in the line of duty. Two officers in Decatur, Illinois were hit by gunfire as they made a traffic stop. The alleged gunman was killed by return fire.
As a Philadelphia SWAT team executed a search warrant, a subject opened fire and hit three of the members. Also in this case, the alleged shooter was killed as the team defended itself.
And three officers were shot, two fatally, while responding to a domestic disturbance call in Bristol, Connecticut. The suspect reportedly fired over 80 rounds at law enforcement, and the surviving officer managed to return fire and kill the alleged shooter.
The new year is hardly off to a better beginning. In California on Friday, Jan. 13, Riverside County deputy Darnell Calhoun, 30, was responding to a call reporting “unknown trouble” when authorities say a suspect began shooting.
Sheriff Chad Bianco had the sad duty to announce that “Deputy Calhoun was shot and killed in the line of duty.”
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw is fed up.
“I’m outraged. I’m disgusted,” she declared. “I’m wondering where the level of outrage and upset is outside of the law enforcement community.” She described the level of violence targeting law enforcement officers as “beyond outrageous.”
Officials see a sharp rise in violence against police officers since 2020, and it runs parallel with the overall increase in violent criminal activity across the nation.
A 2016 FBI study looked at 50 cases of shootings of officers. The findings revealed that 40% of the assailants were motivated by wanting to avoid arrest while 28% were fueled by their hatred of the police.
Shootings were the second-leading cause of death for law enforcement officers in 2022, trailing only COVID-19. The pandemic was still raging in the early months of the year but trailed off afterwards.
Behind COVID-19 and shootings last year were automobile crashes, which claimed 32 lives. Vehicular assaults killed another 14 officers, and 11 died of heart attacks.
Each and every law-abiding American owes a debt of gratitude to the brave men and women who put their lives on the line every day to protect the innocent. However, these frontline officers are increasingly under attack by those who care nothing for human life or civil liberties.
It is more important than ever that each of us appreciates and safeguards our precious constitutional freedoms, and it is equally critical that we hold those who lay it all on the line for our safety in the highest regard.
