No, it is not just the risk inherent to their job.
In France, the police officer, since the Paris attack, got more and more power, and can now carry their work firearm outside of service.
Since this decision has been made, the number of people shot by a police officer (in or out of service) has increase by +54% in one year.
But their job didn't get any more dangerous, there is no significant increase in firearm possession or, globally, criminality between 2016 and 2017. Nothing at least that would be close to a +54% increase in one year.
But, on the other end, officer are more and more protected and usually don't even end up in court, even when they blatantly violated the police instruction.
This tend to show one thing, that I thing have been proven time and time again: Give more power to someone and none of the responsibilities that should come with it, and you get people who will abuse their power over and over again.
There are certain government reactions which are nonsense, I agree. Like the reaction to 911 in the US and creating the massive hysteria around airport security, which failed miserably, but still nobody does anything about it. I am not justifying stupid laws and decisions made by governments here.
I am not an advocate of how the police and law enforcement works in the US, bit I see the relation why it works like that or at least what would be one of the main causes of it.
Whilst people are crying about giving less control and force to the police, there is no counter measure on the civilian side regarding the ownership of guns in the US.
In France, the police officer, since the Paris attack, got more and more power, and can now carry their work firearm outside of service.
Since this decision has been made, the number of people shot by a police officer (in or out of service) has increase by +54% in one year.
But their job didn't get any more dangerous, there is no significant increase in firearm possession or, globally, criminality between 2016 and 2017. Nothing at least that would be close to a +54% increase in one year.
But, on the other end, officer are more and more protected and usually don't even end up in court, even when they blatantly violated the police instruction.
This tend to show one thing, that I thing have been proven time and time again: Give more power to someone and none of the responsibilities that should come with it, and you get people who will abuse their power over and over again.
EDIT: Source for the +54% (in French): https://www.lemonde.fr/police-justice/article/2018/06/27/le-...
EDIT2: The +54% is the increase in firearm usage by the police, not the number of people shot.
reply