The power of video and the lack of details. The dangers of policiing

Recently on Facebook I saw a post someone had shared from Uniform Stories, a Facebook page whose short description describes the page as "Giving a voice to military, police, fire and ems personnel…one story at a time. www.UniformStories.com". 

The video post is titled "The Dangers of Policing" and is caption with the following, "Let's show a bit more appreciation for the sacrifices police make for our communities. After all, they're all that stands between the monsters and the weak." 

The video appears to be copy of a ABC Nightly News broadcast that highlights multiple  attacks on police half of which the assailants are armed. With chilling background music it goes through 15 separate video while highlighting in bold text "108, the number of duty deaths in 2014".  Actually the year is not yet over but I decided to take a look at those numbers.



Now don't get me wrong, law enforcement is a tough job at best but in this time of heightened emotions don't let those emotions cloud facts. To imply that every death is from gunfire our other assaults is just plain wrong.

The number 108 which has been quoted in the media a bit lately comes from a webpage called Officer Down Memorial Page (www.odmp.org). The memorial page includes a database for each fallen officer and canine on duty.

Looking at the video you begin to notice three main themes. The 108 number includes:

1. assaults (whether with or with out gunfire) on 
2. municipal police, sheriffs deputies, and state troopers,
3. while confronting "monsters"

I decided to analyze the exact same data and came up with some interesting numbers that highlight the power of obfuscation. What I found is that some of the clips in the video which could be identified did not even happen in 2014. When they narrator mentions a SEPTA officer (Southeast Pennsylvania Transportation Authority), I could not find any officer that worked for that agency within the database. Likewise the clip at 0:14 that occurred in West Union I could not find any listing in the database although I was able to find this video that showed the officer getting back up. 

What I did find out that more than just municipal police officers, sheriffs and state troopers the list of officers down included federal, state, city officials as well as employees of the US Navy, US Forest Service, Navajo Reservation Police, Border Patrol Agents, and even Corrections Officers. Killed by gunfire. Not likely most experienced heart attacks or were involved in traffic accidents, not exactly video worthy.

Geo-coded map of Officer Down

So lets get started and look at the data. Here is a map of the database that I geo-coded and highlighted by cause of death. As for officers killed in the line of duty exactly half  (fig. 1) are due to assaults (which includes gunfire, "assault", and vehicle assault). Actually the third highest cause of death is from a heart attack (fig 2). Gunfire accounted for less than 40% of all fallen officers (43).

And the belief that they are all police, sheriffs, and state troopers is also an obfuscation. Included in the "other" category; BART police (accidental shooting by partner), US Navy Security Forces (gunfire), Corrections Officers (heart attack), Fish and Game Wardens (auto accident), Border Patrol (auto accident), Animal Control Officer (auto accident),  School District Cops (heart attack), University Police (heart attack), US Veterans Affairs Officer (heart attack).

Here is a link to the database taken from the Officer Down website.

Fig 1

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

Note: After review the description of the cause of death of Mississippi Game Warden John Collum, I decided to reclassify it from Vehicle Assault to Vehicle Pursuit. The officer was struck by a 19 year old man who was not involved in the initial crime. Although the driver was charged negligent homicide he was unaware of who he struck at the time of the accident.