Some workplace fatality numbers re risks of policing.

Police have risky jobs. So do truck, bus, taxi and train drivers.

Frankly, I don't think anyone should be murdered on the job, nor should they be killed as they go about their lawful daily activities.

I also don't think there is really a good argument to support the notion that the lives of people in one occupation or social status are worth more or less than the lives of those in others. I think we've got to be a bit careful about how we let street memes about heroes and demons shape our perspectives. The only way to do that is to have some references...

The point of this post isn't to provide definitive numbers, it is only for gaining perspective, to help us understand the nature of what is presented as a crisis as the brotherhood of police officers in New York suggest they must adopt a mental state of being at war with people on the street.

This isn't my field. I am certain someone who works in labor stats or is an actuarial could surely do this better than me. Such a person would better know where to look to get the proper numbers, etc. But I visited the federal bureau of labor stats site and the national LEO memorial fund site and came away with the following.

Four times as many truck drivers die on the job as police. Of course there are more truck drivers. But it might not be as big a difference as you think. There are something near 2.5x as many truckers as there are people employed in law enforcement.

If I did the ratio correctly, the personal risk of dying on the the job (from all causes) per year as a truck driver is 00.0271% (all types of trucking, based on 2012 employment est. and 2013 fatalities reported). That's twice the rate as for police but, then only about 10 of the ~460 otj deaths of truckers are homicides, less than I thought it might be, given comments I've heard from a brother who was a trucker...

If I did the ratio correctly, there is a personal risk of 00.0135% risk of dying on the job (from all causes) as a law enforcement employee (all categories, based on 2012 employment est. and 2013 fatalities reported). Of those deaths in 2013, 38 were homicides, roughly 1/3...way ahead of the rate of homicides for truck drivers.

Now, something people might suspect, but I didn't know, is that people controlling ground transportation for passengers (buses, taxis, carriages, train drivers, etc) suffered 59 on the job deaths in 2013 and of those 44 were homicides. IOW nearly 75% of otj deaths for people working in ground passenger transportation were homicides, compared to ~33% of death for leo's.
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Some basic background about workplace deaths:

Number of workplace fatalities by industry and percent of total workplace fatalities (rounded to nearest nonzero integer)
NOTE: These numbers -are not- the rates of fatalities in each industry. I stripped these from a larger table whose format isn't supported by DU...

Special const. contractors... 476, 11%
Truck transportation... 461, 10% (BLS lists 1.7 million people in this occupation in 2012, so 0.0271% risk of dying on job)Prof and business services...408, 9%
Admin services (includes waste services)...327, 7%
Retail trade (all)...253, 6%
Crop production... 210, 5%
Leisure and hospitality...202, 5%
Const. civil engineering...162, 4%
Const of buildings...145, 3%
Lodging and food serv...134, 3%
Animal production...129, 3%
Health care and soc...100, 2%
Arts, entertainment, and rec ...68, 2%
Forestry and logging...81, 2%
Mining, oil, gas extraction... 154, 2%
Support act' mining...103, 2%
Merchant wholesalers, durable goods...107, 2%
Merchant wholesalers, 81, 2%
Mining, except oil & gas... 39, 1%
Food manufacturing...46, 1%
Fabricated metal products...47, 1%
Prof and tech services...80, 2%
Motor vehicle and parts ...41, 1%
Food and beverage stores... 46, 1%
Transit and ground passenger trans... 59 1%
Utilities...23, 1%
Information...39, 1%
Finance and insurance... 21, 1%
Real estate and leasing... 63, 1%
Educational services... 31, 1%


Subtotal Private Goods and Services....3,929 fatalities, 89 % of total workplace fatalities

Government (all nonmilitary)... 476 fatalities 11% of total workplace fatalities
Federal government...124, 3%
State government...70, 2%
Local government...281, 6%

Total...4,405 fatalities 100% of total workplace fatalities
http://www.bls.gov
Law Enforcement fatalities (all levels all causes)... 105 equivalent to 2.38% of total workplace deaths (a 0.0135 % risk of dying on the job)


http://www.nleomf.org/facts/officer-fatalities-data/causes.html

In 2012 the bureau of labor statistic state approx 780,000 jobs in law enforcement
Causes of Law Enforcement fatalities on the job 2013
9/11 related illness: 1
Aircraft accident: 1
Automobile accident: 25
Boating accident: 1
Bomb: 1
Drowned: 2
Duty related illness: 1
Electrocuted: 1
Fall: 4
Fire: 1
Gunfire: 30
Gunfire (Accidental): 2
Heart attack: 10
Motorcycle accident: 4
Stabbed: 2
Struck by vehicle: 8
Training accident: 2
Vehicle pursuit: 4
Vehicular assault: 5

Read more: http://www.odmp.org/search/year?year=2013#ixzz3MYUvvYkc