Misconceptions

“Police officers are killed on the job all the time”

Yes, being a police officer is extremely risky. Officers are coming into contact with dangerous criminals who are most likely only thinking of their own self-interest. But policing is actually safer than it has ever been, and cops are injured or killed less often than you think. Out of 63 million annual police interactions with the public, officers were only attacked in an average of 0.09% of those interactions, injured in 0.02% of interactions, and feloniously killed in 0.00008% of interactions. Only 25% of assaults actually resulted in any physical injuries. And on-duty deaths of police officers are actually at an all-time low. While these stats don’t lessen the risks that officers face, it helps to put them in perspective- officer fatalities are not a common occurrence.

“RESTRICTIVE POLICIES WILL ENDANGER POLICE”

Actually, Campaign Zero reported that cops in police departments that have more restrictive policies in place are actually less likely to be assaulted or killed in the line of duty, because they are not putting themselves in as much danger.

“Police only shoot people that are armed and dangerous”

Actually, MappingPoliceViolence.org reported that, in 2014, almost 60% of victims of police killings either did not have a gun at the time, or were not taking part in activities that should have required police intervention (these include “quality of life” behaviors and mental health crises). Although some faced by officers are indeed dangerous, there exists an exorbitant amount of innocent victims that shouldn’t have even needed the police, let alone needed them to use deadly force.

“American police officers are the best trained in the world”

Actually, officers in many European countries are trained for several years to work in the police department, while in America police officers generally train from between 10 to 36 weeks. Some countries, such as Finland and Norway, treat police training as an academic discipline, and emphasize ethics and the role that police should have in society. In the US, however, a college degree is not even required to become an officer (a high school degree or GED is required), regardless of research confirming the relationship between higher education and lowered police use-of-force.