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In the line of duty police officer deaths are at their highest in four years, according to statistics recently released by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, and Rolla Police Department is responding.
“The thing about these line-of-duty deaths is that they are ambushes and things like that, where body armor won’t help,” RPD Staff Sgt. James Macormic said.
While overall line-of-duty deaths are up by 16 percent in 2011, firearm related deaths rose by 20 percent, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.
For the first time in over a decade, more police officers died because of a gunshot than any other cause.
Traffic-related accidents have been the number one cause of deaths by on-duty police officers. This includes officer involved crashes, officers struck by cars, and motorcycle and boating accidents.
For the Rolla Police Department, this means more safety related training, according to Capt. Jason Smith.
“We devoted an hour of our training day last month to officer safety, and we will continue that trend all through this year,” Smith said.
Smith spends one full day each month training RPD officers.
To enforce the message, Smith says officers will learn from the mistakes of officers now counted in these statistics.
“I have a whole series of videos lined up that we will be watching,” said Smith.
According to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund statistics, seven states had a larger share of in the line of duty deaths than Missouri in 2011, with Florida topping that list.
Of the 177 on-duty deaths in 2011, 14 of them were in Florida.
Six of them were Missouri officers, including one Missouri State Highway Patrol Trooper, Sgt. Fred Guthrie, Jr., whose body has not been found.
Guthrie was assigned to the Water Patrol, and went missing while patrolling a flooded Missouri River in August.
According to MSHP Troop I Public Information Officer Sgt. Dan Crain, the patrol believes Guthrie was attempting to rescue his police K-9 when the waters swept him away.
Crain said that, while MSHP is saddened by the loss of Sgt. Guthrie, they are thankful not to have a larger share of the statistics.
“We lost several in other accidents, but as far as in the line of duty, and one is too many, but, thank goodness, we only had that one,” Crain said.
Crain said Troop I officers will not see any changes to their training regiment, but the patrol is constantly aiming to incorporate firearms and self-defense tactics into its ongoing training sessions.
“I think everything we are already doing goes along with what those statistics show,” Crain said.
In the line of duty police officer deaths are at their highest in four years, according to statistics recently released by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, and Rolla Police Department is responding.
“The thing about these line-of-duty deaths is that they are ambushes and things like that, where body armor won’t help,” RPD Staff Sgt. James Macormic said.
While overall line-of-duty deaths are up by 16 percent in 2011, firearm related deaths rose by 20 percent, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.
For the first time in over a decade, more police officers died because of a gunshot than any other cause.
Traffic-related accidents have been the number one cause of deaths by on-duty police officers. This includes officer involved crashes, officers struck by cars, and motorcycle and boating accidents.
For the Rolla Police Department, this means more safety related training, according to Capt. Jason Smith.
“We devoted an hour of our training day last month to officer safety, and we will continue that trend all through this year,” Smith said.
Smith spends one full day each month training RPD officers.
To enforce the message, Smith says officers will learn from the mistakes of officers now counted in these statistics.
“I have a whole series of videos lined up that we will be watching,” said Smith.
According to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund statistics, seven states had a larger share of in the line of duty deaths than Missouri in 2011, with Florida topping that list.
Of the 177 on-duty deaths in 2011, 14 of them were in Florida.
Six of them were Missouri officers, including one Missouri State Highway Patrol Trooper, Sgt. Fred Guthrie, Jr., whose body has not been found.
Guthrie was assigned to the Water Patrol, and went missing while patrolling a flooded Missouri River in August.
According to MSHP Troop I Public Information Officer Sgt. Dan Crain, the patrol believes Guthrie was attempting to rescue his police K-9 when the waters swept him away.
Crain said that, while MSHP is saddened by the loss of Sgt. Guthrie, they are thankful not to have a larger share of the statistics.
“We lost several in other accidents, but as far as in the line of duty, and one is too many, but, thank goodness, we only had that one,” Crain said.
Crain said Troop I officers will not see any changes to their training regiment, but the patrol is constantly aiming to incorporate firearms and self-defense tactics into its ongoing training sessions.
“I think everything we are already doing goes along with what those statistics show,” Crain said.
