Is police work dangerous?  I guess if you ask someone in law enforcement they’d say “yes” but let’s take a look at the FACTS rather than opinion….because opinions are like…

ATTENTION:  MONEY MAGAZINE, cited below, BASED THEIR ARTICLE ON BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.  The BLS is the source for accurate information about occupational-related data in the USA.  See for yourself at WWW.BLS.GOV

According to Money Magazine, see http://money.cnn.com/2006/08/16/pf/2005_most_dangerous_jobs/index.htm

Police work isn’t in the top ten.

The top ten most dangerous jobs would be:

    JOB                                      deaths per 100,000 (death rate)       year total

1.Fishers and fishing workers 118.4                                                 48

2 Logging workers                  92.9                                                  80

3 Aircraft pilots                       66.9                                                  81

4 Structural iron and steel workers 55.6                                           35

5 Refuse and recyclable material collectors 43.8                               32

6 Farmers and ranchers 41.1                                                            341

7 Electrical power line installers/repairers 32.7                                  36

8 Driver/sales workers and truck drivers 29.1                                   993

9 Miscelleneous agricultural workers 23.2                                        176

10 Construction laborers                     22.7                                      339

Wow…with all the “glory stories”, movies, tv shows, books, etc. you’d think police work was “life on the line”!  But what do cops really do with their time?  According to Samuel Walker’s great book “Sense and Nonsense about Crime and Drugs”, cops spend about 10% of their time actually enforcing the law.  These findings come from several studies of large metropolitan police departments such as Kansas City and San Diego so they are generally considered accurate as to what “big-city” cops do.  The rest is spent doing public order work (such as directing traffic-which can be dangerous) and public service (giving out information-low risk).  Somewhere in there is paperwork and the misc. stuff any job entails.

Now that doesn’t mean police work isn’t dangerous.  So let’s look at Police deaths in the line of duty.  First, however, some facts from the 2004 Uniform Crime Reports:

 “In 2004, 14,254 state, city, university, and college, metropolitan and nonmetropolitan

county, and other law enforcement agencies employed 675,734 sworn officers.”

Throw in the federal system and you’ve got less than one million sworn officers (people who carry guns). 

In 2004, 57 officers were felonious killed (on-purpose) and 82 died in accidents. So the per 100,000 death rate would be 5.7 per 100k on-purpose 8.2 per 100k accident= 13.9 per 100k total.  I’d like to point out that the on-purpose rate is VERY LOW and that the accidental deaths are higher than the “on-purpose” death.  Hardly the grim, “life on the edge” job we are led to believe.   I think fishermen should write some screen plays since theirs’ is truly the most dangerous job.  How about a movie entitled “Blood on the Bait Boat” or “Dirty Harry: The Treble Hooks of Terror”?  In any case, one death is too many—fisherman or cop.

So in terms of fatalities, we see that police work is not among the most dangerous professions.  But there is an element of danger there, no doubt.  But if we wanted to drastically reduce police officer deaths we should make them safer from accidents rather than gun-toting criminals.  Remember that more cops are killed in accidents than on-purpose.  Maybe all cops should wear helmets all of the time…in or out of the vehicle.  Or how about better restraints for cop cars including stock car driver harnesses and full-surround airbags?  And since many cops are killed in traffic while out of the car, BLAZE ORANGE police uniforms with flashing strobe lights would seem to be a great way to reduce accidents..  These would seem to be much more effective ways of keeping officers safe than focusing on gun control or locking up cop-hating felons.  BTW since most departments supply body-armor for protection against the unlikely “on-purpose” shooting, WHY NOT REQUIRE FULL TIME HELMET USE AND BLAZE ORANGE UNIFORMS WITH FLASHING LIGHTS?  It would definitely save lives.

“But IdidURmomma, what about injuries?”  Good point…while no doubt police work does involve the risk of being injured, that risk is undoubtedly less than the other aforementioned professions which involve frequent, continual exposure to machinery and/or moving objects (dangerous things).  Police work involves less injury simply because the police don’t spend the majority of their time doing or around inherently dangerous things.  Remember that only 10% of a police officers time involves actual law enforcement.  I guess cops drive around a lot so that does imply a high risk of accidental injury….those helmets would be lifesavers.

Probably the biggest killer (and injury as well) of cops is the sedentary life-style of ALL AMERICANS.  Police departments (and every other profession in the USA) would be better off in terms of employee health if they forbade smoking and set up tread mills.  Cops spend a lot of time sitting around in cars and behind desks.  Put down that pizza slice and get to jogging!

The easily available internet sources I looked at found that doctors have the highest suicide rate by profession, followed by dentists, veterinarians and cops.  I guess the professions with the highest suicide rates are those that give practitioners ready access to lethal devices (drugs and guns).  Maybe its wrong to argue that police work CAUSES suicide …maybe it just gives suicidal people access to handguns.  Given the high divorce rate of police officers, it is logical to assume that some of those divorces are bitter leading to suicide….pure speculation on my part however.

So police work is not that dangerous.  Anyone saying that is mistaken or feeding you a line of crap.  The difference seems to be that when a cop is killed it’s on purpose BUT THAT IS NOT TRUE…accidents kill more cops than criminals.  The same goes for injuries on the job I suspect. 

PS. before I read any comments I want to state now "Fuck you all very much".

       I also realize that money magazine is hardly a scholarly source but they       usually do their homework