Update to OFFICER DOWN/ SHOTS FIRED (Flagstaff)

a reply to: UnderKingsPeak

Line of Duty deaths by state

Current year Officer Deaths - 2014

FBI Statistics - Officers killed 2013

The stats are there people just need to look for them. While we get our own breakdown in crime stats we are not the focus and never should be.


a reply to: Jelonek
For me the most dangerous type of call we can get is a toss up - Domestic violence or a traffic stop. In both situations we are entering a scenario we know absolutely nothing about.

While the guy may have just gotten done beating his wife to a pulp our presence can force the wife to defend the man who just beat her. Its one of the reasons domestic violence is one of the only crimes where we don't have to have a cooperating victim in order to make an arrest or prosecute. It removes the ability for the suspect to blame the other for criminal prosecution.

On the flip side the person I just pulled over for speeding could have very well just got done butchering their family. For the most part a person being stopped knows they are having an encounter with law enforcement and the thought process is what did I do to get stopped (exceptions exist). The person I am stopping for speeding may have been speeding on accident or speeding for a reason. Those "what if" mental exercises are what can save our lives when its determined the person was speeding because he jut got done committing several class A felonies.

When Police approach a driver with their weapon out its for safety reasons and not because we can. I would rather have my weapon out and not need it than have it holstered and need it. The same holds for backup on calls. I would rather have 12 officers arrive and only need 2 than have only 2 arrive and need more (I have fought with people on PCP and in one of those instances it took about 12 officers from 2 agencies to control the guy and get him to the hospital. It then took our agency and hospital public safety to continue to control the person for medical to do their things. Had back up not responded as quickly as they did the end result would have been a use of deadly force.

People have their opinions of police and our job and that's fine. My only request is for people to make an attempt to understand how our job works before running their mouths. What appears black and white is not always black and white.

As for your friend in Poland it shows that regardless of country and laws, we face the same issues and same danger. Best wishes for him in the new year.

originally posted by: mortex

originally posted by: Irishhaf
a reply to: opethPA


Yup bads been happening forever, I just wonder if the pace has increased or are we so connected that we have information overload and this amount of bad is standard.

It's information overload because society has become more dangerous.
There's more drugs out on the streets now, and not just marijuana or coc aine or heroin. But drugs that aren't even based on any plant, but 100% chemicals and other poisons. Things like Ice are creating massive problems in lots of places.

The fear is being drilled into people.

And I'll tell you one thing. Since we've had a free trade agreement here in Australia with the USA, we are getting more and more and more news about what's happening there. We are always being told what the US president is saying or doing. Like I give a sh** what the US president is doing, or what's happening over there in some tiny city or town or suburb that nobody has ever heard of. We've got our own problems.

You have a point, but you should probably give a s**t... because it is not only Australia that's getting America's news - it's most of the world. There is a reason the fall of America is being televised to most of the world... and I dread to think what that reason is...

originally posted by: doompornjunkie

originally posted by: Taupin Desciple
a reply to: opethPA

This sounds like a good story to help point out WHY officers shoot suspects. In a lot of cases, they're pre-emptive strikes regardless of color.

The cop haters make it sound like cops shouldn't shoot at all. Just stand there and take the bullets.

Absolutely agree! The comment that perplexes me the most is 'civilians/LEO's should wait until they are shot at before they shoot'... Seriously? I don't see any benefit to giving criminals threatening lethal force the benefit of the doubt, or at least no benefit for the innocent.

Such rules of engagement seem to work fine for our military, who are in the middle of a hostile war zone. Lots of cops are former soldiers. I think they could handle it.

a reply to: Xcathdra

Pretty much what you wrote.
I'm no policeman, but I do respect their jobs. There are a lot of people who shouldn't be policemen - or policewomen - and who clearly missed the entire "to serve and protect" idea when entering the PD, but the same goes for any other job where are people who don't care, people who suck at it, people who willingly do it wrong and people who are corrupt along with people who were born to do this job, people who do it to the best of their abilities and people who just want to finish their shift and go home. That doesn't change the big picture: This job involves you going willingly into the harm's way. So others don't have to or don't need to. For that I respect these people, wherever and whoever they are.