Death rate among on-duty police officers fallen since 1960s, new data shows, with car crashes top cause
CBC
In the days after an Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officer was shot and killed on Dec. 27, 2022 in rural southern Ontario, police associations said the number of officers dying on the job was "unprecedented."
Const. Grzegorz Pierzchala, who had just started his policing career in Haldimand County, was one of five officers who died on the job in Canada last year.
Another five officers have died on duty already this year, including Ontario Provincial Police Sgt. Eric Mueller on May 11, prompting more police associations and services to speak out.
New data from University of Ottawa researchers, shared exclusively with CBC News before its publication, shows the 10 deaths in eight months hasn't been seen since the early 1960s — but with more than twice as many officers working now compared to then, the overall death rate of on-duty officers is lower compared to past decades.
The data also shows that over the decades, car crashes have been the leading cause of death among officers on the job.
"It doesn't mean we shouldn't take it seriously … Nonetheless it doesn't mean [police] get to make any claims that they want," said Justin Piché, a University of Ottawa associate professor and supervisor of the Criminalization and Punishment Education Project. Piché casts doubt on claims that policing is more dangerous now than in past years.
The research was led by Lyne "Léo" Ral and Elisabeth Touwaide, both of whom are completing double master's degrees in criminology University of Ottawa and the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium respectively.
The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) doesn't dispute the numbers but says they don't tell the whole story.
The data tracks on-duty officer deaths from 1962 to this year using numerous sources including police websites, memorial groups and past research.
It shows 408 police officers have died on the job across Canada in those 61 years. The deadliest years were 1962 and 1968 with 16 officers dying at work each of those years.
On average since 1962, there are between six and seven deaths per year.
Most officers who died on the job were between 25 and 34-years-old, the statistics show.
The data also highlights deaths from "intentional harmful acts" like shootings.
The average number of deaths in that category is between two and three annually, which would make 2022 and 2023 above-average years for those cases.
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