JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Police deaths continued to rise in 2016 with the killing of two Georgia officers last week, bringing the total number of officers killed in the line of duty this year to 137, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.
One of those Georgia officers was laid to rest Sunday.
“Being a law enforcement officer, it's really a dangerous profession at times,” Nassau County Sheriff Bill Leeper said.
Leeper has been in law enforcement almost 40 years and recently lost one of his own, Deputy Eric Oliver, who was hit and killed crossing a street during a foot chase.
Oliver was the 13th law enforcement officer to be struck and killed by a vehicle this year and was the sixth officer to die in Florida in 2016.
That number ranks Florida sixth in officer fatalities. Georgia is fourth with eight deaths this year, according to the memorial fund's stats.
The five states with the most deaths through Dec. 12 were:
- Texas: 18
- California: 10
- Louisiana: 9
- Georgia: 8
- Michigan: 7
“We've got a goal every year called below 100, to keep the deaths below 100 throughout the country, but that didn't happen this year,” Leeper said. “It's been increasing.”
In 2014 there were 122 officer deaths, and in 2015 there were 123. Of the 137 deaths so far this year, 53 were traffic-related and 64 were shot.
The two Georgia officers shot last week were responding to a domestic disturbance. News4Jax crime and safety analyst Gil Smith said calls like that can be very unpredictable.
“Domestic violence calls can be very dangerous, because you're dealing with emotion, and in most cases when someone is highly emotional or highly upset, they hardly ever make good decisions,” Smith said. “It's dangerous for police.”
The two Georgia officers had known each other since high school and went to the police academy together.