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2011 one of the deadliest years for law enforcement officers

By Tom Flanigan

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wfsu/local-wfsu-978838.mp3

Tallahassee, FL – It's often said that law enforcement officers put their lives on the line every day. Now the numbers are out for the first half of this year and Tom Flanigan reports it's been an especially deadly six months for officers in Florida.

Nationwide, the number of law officers killed in the line of duty declined over the past two years. But for the first half of 2011, the number of police fatalities in America jumped up fourteen percent to just under a hundred. Craig Floyd heads the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, which keeps track of those figures. He says Florida and another state top the nation in police deaths. And, in Florida, most of those deaths were due to firearms.

"Six officers in the state of Florida were shot and killed during the first six months of this year; a total of ten officers overall killed in the line of duty in Florida and that ties Texas for the dubious distinction of more officer deaths than any other state in the country."

That's a distinction that concerns and saddens Steve Casey. He's executive director of the Florida Sheriffs Association.

"While Florida is enjoying a historically low crime rate, it is troubling that we are leading the nation in officers who are fatally wounded while carrying out their duties. You know, the loss of these brave men and women has a tragic and lasting effect on the communities they served and our state as a whole."

This was the first time in several years that bullets claimed more Florida law officers than traffic-related fatalities. But National Rifle Association Past-President Marion Hammer says it's a mistake to blame the recent growth in gun ownership. And she says those who obtain concealed weapons permits under Florida law aren't the problem.

"In the twenty-four years since that law passed, they have issued over one-point-nine million licenses. And only 168 have been revoked for misuse of a firearm. Now that's a safety record that I don't know anybody else is able to match."

Craig Floyd agrees. He says there's an overall breakdown in society, in which firearms are more and more winding up in the hands of the young and irresponsible, as well as the hands of the criminally inclined.

"Parents are not doing their jobs at home and law enforcement officers have to clean up the mess. They have to confront these deranged individuals who have no respect for government, for authority, for human life. And unfortunately, our officers are at great risk; probably greater than we've seen in recent years. And these numbers, I think, prove that out."

One of those officers is Derek Friend. Today, he's lead spokesperson for the Tallahassee Police Department, but he's logged lots of time on the street. He says the number of Florida officers killed in the line of duty during the first half of this year isn't really a surprise.

"It's indicative of the dangers that we face on a daily basis. And though there have been a number of years where firearm-related deaths of officers were down, it is something that is never far from the mind of the police officer out on the street."

In fact, Friend says it's been police standard procedure for many years to assume that every citizen encounter has the potential for danger.

"Every time a police officer is interacting with another person, there is at least one gun present. And without knowing what the person was doing in the hours before we encountered them, or perhaps we've never met them before, you just don't know what is going through someone else's head and we need to maintain vigilance and awareness of everything."

At the same time, Friend says police can't treat every citizen they meet as a homicidal "bad guy".

"It comes down to you've always got to maintain respect for the citizens as we're interacting with them. Everyone is not the boogieman and you have to balance that with the potential danger of any encounter."

Pulling off that balancing act requires constant training and making sure there are enough other resources to do the job. The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund's Craig Floyd worries about those ever-increasing professional needs.

"At the same time, we're slashing the budgets for law enforcement. We're giving them less training, less equipment and fewer officers on the street to keep our communities and our protectors safe."

Nearly all of the Florida law officers killed so far this year were city cops and county sheriff's deputies. The state's local governments are now deciding how much money they'll have to do their job, and try to stay alive, over the twelve months that begin this October.