Title: US police shootings: How many die each year? - BBC News
Headings: US police shootings: How many die each year?
US police shootings: How many die each year?
Police killed
Killed by police
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Content: Police killed
"There's a widespread perception in the American public, and particularly within law enforcement, that officers are more threatened, more endangered, more often assaulted, and more often killed than they have been historically," says Seth Stoughton, a law professor at the University of Southern Carolina and former policeman. "I think it's a very strong perception. People truly believe it. But factually, looking at the numbers, it's not accurate," he says. FBI data on police officers "feloniously killed" - killed as a result of a criminal act - indicates that the numbers have been falling, he says. Looking at the 10 years from 2006 to 2015 the annual average number of police deaths was 49.6, Stoughton says, which he notes is "down significantly from the high". "The high was the 10-year period prior to 1980, when we had an average of 115 - actually 114.8 officers feloniously killed… in the line of duty every year." At the same time the number of police officers has increased dramatically in the US. At the same time the number of police officers has increased in the US. There are a quarter of a million more police officers working today than there were three decades ago.