Surge in Cop Killings in 2014
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iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — The killing of two NYPD officers and a Florida police officer this past weekend appears to be part of a grim increase of officers killed in the line of duty.
Craig Floyd, chairman of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, says there’s been a 23-percent increase in officers killed in the line of duty compared to last year.
Floyd says 123 officers have been killed nationwide as of Sunday, compared to 100 at the same time last year.
Floyd says the number of officers killed by gunfire has increased by 58-percent over last year’s figure. Forty-nine officers have been killed by gunfire in 2014.
The NYPD says the two officers killed in Brooklyn were ambushed as they sat in their parked patrol car. Floyd says 12 police officers have been killed this year in ambush-style attacks.
The 2014 surge in cop killings comes after two years of decline in the number of deaths. Last year’s total of 100 officers killed nationwide was the lowest fatality figure since 1944.
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