Shooting deaths of police officers are up 78 percent so far this year compared to 2015, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund’s mid-year report.
As of July 20, 67 police officer deaths have been reported, and 32 of those deaths have been firearms-related. Through the same period in 2015, there were just 18 firearms-related shooting deaths.
Of the 32 arms-related fatalities, 14 were considered ambush-style attacks. Only three shooting fatalities were considered ambush-style in the same period in 2015.
Texas and Louisiana, following ambush-style attacks on police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, lead the count with 13 and 7 shooting deaths, respectively.
Even though these statistics are well below the peak of 156 firearm-related killings in 1973, the president of the memorial fund, Craig W. Floyd, said he finds the increase “extremely troubling” and comparable to the 1970s.
“In the 1970s, you had a lot of parallels to what we are facing now,” he said. “There was a lot of anti-authority sentiment and a lot of anti-police sentiment.”
He stressed that the police were targets back then, “just as they are becoming targets again today.”
