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Be careful out there

February 5th, 2010 at Fri, 5th, 2010 at 3:54 pm by jessiestensland

During the recent budget cuts in Island County, some people started a debate over how dangerous police work really is. It was obviously an issue on people’s minds with the series of murders of police officers in the state. Island County Sheriff Mark Brown argued that deputies were essentially more important than other county employees because they are “risk takers.” On the other hand, a couple of people associated with the WSU Extension Office claimed that it’s not really such a dangerous job, especially in a rural county.
So I looked up the numbers. I looked back at the famous list of the 10 Most Dangerous Jobs in America, which is based on numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Over the last decade, I only saw police officers on the list once, at No. 10 in 2007. In most years, police work is considered the 11th or 12th most dangerous job in America, statistically speaking.
Another significant statistic is a nationwide number that looks at the relative risk of fatality for different jobs, also created by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number for police includes patrol officers, detectives and supervisors in the calculation, which would skew it a little to the safe side. The relative risk index for police hovers around 3.4, which means that an officer is 3.4 times likelier to be killed than an average worker. Not surprising, the most common causes of on-the-job deaths for police officers are homicide and car crashes.
Obviously, carrying a badge has an inherent risk. But it’s not the most dangerous job in the county. As anyone who watches cable TV can guess, fishing and logging are the two most dangerous jobs in 2009, followed by aircraft pilots, steel and iron workers and farmers. At No. 6 is garbage and recyclable material collectors and handlers. In fact, a garbage collector injured at the county’s transfer station has filed a lawsuit. Are the folks in the solid waste department risk takers too?
Of course, statistics don’t tell the entire story. In my mind, we should give quality police officers, firefighters and paramedics strong support and good wages, not just because of the physical danger they face, but for the emotional and mental risk. Even in the safest of communities, unspeakable tragedies occur and those men and women have to deal with them head-on. I talked to a deputy years ago who held a little Camano Island girl as she died, the victim of a drugged-up teenager who beat her with a piece of firewood and raped her. How do cops recover from something like that? Last year, a boy shot himself in front of deputies after making a heartbreaking 911 call. I heard the call and it was more than I can handle. Detectives have to deal with a steady stream of children who have been abused by those who are supposed to care for them. It has to be numbing.

jessiestensland Jessie Stensland is the assistant editor of the Whidbey News-Times. She has covered crime and courts on Whidbey Island for the past 12 years or so.

More articles by jessiestensland >
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  • flynhigh169
    Numbers and stats are all good in well when all crime is reported.
    Too many time crimes such as molestation, rape and harrasment are not reported.
    Now add thoes factors at 10% and an officers job will rate higher.
  • whiskey1
    many times i have said cops should act like cops instead of looking like them, but never have i said there are to many. i can only imagine what this world or area i live in would be like with out law enforcement. on top of that what kind of person would question how dangerous a job is where you are required to where a bullet proof vest and carry a gun?
  • Dirty_Harry1
    Dave, you hit the nail on the head. More times than not I've encountered persons under the influence of any number of substances. The reality about rural law enforcement is that the Deputies or Officers have a greater area to patrol which often means help is not as close as an Officer in a municipality would have. The hazards of other occupations are from operator error to equipment malfunctions. Although the trend has been (at least in California) that more law enforcement officers are killed in traffic collisions, but still its one of those jobs whose dangers are from the violence of others.
  • Statistics about the number of deaths and injuries related to the total number of workers are misleading in assessing the dangers of law enforcement work. The number of deaths each year are measured against the total number of workers. This is misleading when it comes to police work. The risks faced by a road deputy in a rural county are different than those confronting detectives or other officers with different duties. We don't have examples of assassins gunning down plainclothes officers at their desks.

    The hazards faced by police officers are different than those in industrial occupations. Solid waste workers, fishermen, and farmers face physical hazards against which safety measures can be taken. Airplane pilots suffer accidents in many cases due to their own errors. Police officers face danger from other human beings whose behavior is difficult to predict and to control. Steel and iron workers are not threatened by I-beams which have made a decision to kill them. Officers confront suspects and have to guess if lives are in danger and have to make an instantaneous decision how to react. React wrongly, misjudge the nature of an object held in a threatening manner, and the officer faces dishonor and worse. Steel and iron workers are not sued or prosecuted for guessing wrongly about an industrial hazard.

    The statistics don't tell the whole story.
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