Three hundred and seventy-eight cops nationwide, including eight from Alabama, were shot in the line of duty in 2023.
According to a recent report from the National Fraternal Order of Police, the 2023 national total was an increase of 14% from 2022.
Forty-six cops nationwide were killed in 2023, including Huntsville police officer Garrett Crumby, who died in March after being shot at an apartment complex along with another officer and one civilian.
Crumby and fellow officer Albert Morin were responding to an emergency domestic violence call at the Governor's House apartment complex when they were ambushed by an armed suspect who had already shot a female victim on the scene.
The officers were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment, where Crumby, a three-year veteran of the Huntsville Police Department, soon succumbed to his injuries.
"Last year, over 330 police officers were shot in the line of duty. With the COVID-19 pandemic behind us and after so many Americans have seen the tragic consequences of the defund the police movement, it was our hope that these numbers would be a high-water mark. We were wrong," Patrick Yoes, national president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said in a statement on Tuesday.
"Instead, 378 officers were shot in the line of duty in 2023, the highest number the FOP has ever recorded," he added. "Thankfully, because of dramatic improvements in medical trauma science and anti-ballistic technology, the lethality of these attacks has been reduced and only 46 of the officers shot in the line of duty were killed. There were 115 ambush-style attacks on law enforcement officers this year, which resulted in 138 officers shot, 20 of whom were killed. Many will often look at this data and just see numbers, but we must remember that they represent heroes—fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters. This scale of violence against our officers is horrifying and simply unsustainable. It is no wonder that our profession is facing a recruitment and retention crisis."
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email caleb.taylor@1819News.com.
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