Report: Officer line-of-duty deaths are up, especially traffic-related deaths

(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund is reporting line-of-duty deaths of officers are up for the first half of the year, especially traffic -related deaths.

Tom Weitzel, former Chief of Police in Riverside and now with the memorial fund, says line-of-duty deaths were up about 15% for the first half of the year.

“There’s 71 police officers killed in the line of duty, thus far, compared to 62 the same period last year.”

Of the 71, 28 were shot, compared to 26 during the same period last year.

Weitzel said if you look at fatal traffic incidents, they were up by 136% with 26 total. Of that total, 17 died in crashes and nine on the side of roads.

“There’s the officers that are being killed because they’re either assisting disabled motorists or making a traffic stop. But, also what’s happening is we’re having more and more officers injured and killed using those stop sticks.”

There needs to be better training, he said.

Weitzel also said chiefs need to push traffic safety, including reminding officers to wear seat belts.

He says sees very few reasons why high-speed pursuits should be happening at all.

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