ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – Statistics from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement show a sharp increase of violent crime in the Jacksonville area during 2014, and many more officers are being forced to use deadly force across the nation.
On Monday, the Associated Press reported the number of officers killed by firearms in America jumped by 56 percent this year. Fifteen of the shootings were ambushes.
But the report also shows gun-related police deaths are still far below historic highs, and lower than the average annual figures in the past decade.
In northeast Florida, no officers have been killed this year, but one officer with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office was shot, another was stabbed in a violent confrontation and there have been several shootings that have involved police officers.
This comes a day after St. Johns County deputies opened fire on a man who pointed a shotgun at them, killing the man. That incident marks the the fifth shooting involving a St. Johns County deputy in 2014, the most ever for the county within a year. All five incidents began with a domestic violence call to deputies.
"Domestic violence - those calls are usually high every year," said Channel 4 Crime and Safety Expert Gil Smith. "They are probably the most dangerous calls for a police officer to go on because they can be so highly emotional and people make last-second decisions to shoot sometimes when they may not even be planning to do that."
In comparison, Nassau County police resorted to using deadly force four times in 2014. Putnam County police used deadly force once, when officers shot 61-year-old Diana Conner. Police say she was shooting at them with a rifle.
Clay and Baker County have had zero shootings involving a police officer.
The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office had 10 shootings that involved police officers. The most recent was Saturday, when SWAT officers shot 28-year-old murder suspect David Scott 21 times. Police said Scott pointed what looked like a weapon at them, and told the officers he wasn't going down without a fight.
FDLE reported violent crime up 16 percent the first half of 2014 in Duval County. Duval has averaged 9 shootings involving police a year since 2010. It dealt with 10 incidents in 2012, and 8 in 2013.
"The number of violent crimes has gone up significantly in 2014 from 2013," said Smith. "So police are going to be called out to more crime scenes because of that spike in violent crimes, so it makes sense that you may have a few more police-shootings than last year."