PD Editorial: Officer safety and a plea to stop vigilante justice

The data show police officers across the nation are less at risk of a life-threatening attack than 35 years ago. But it’s probably hard to find anyone who really believes that this week.

Not in the aftermath of two ambush-style slayings that have left eight sworn officers dead and 12 others wounded in separate attacks this month.

The first occurred on July?7 with a sniper assault at a demonstration in Dallas that left five police officers dead and nine others injured. Then on Sunday, three more uniformed officers were gunned down and three others were wounded in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in another planned attack.

In each case, the assailant was a black man with a background in the military who apparently was retaliating for police shootings of black men in Minnesota, Louisiana and elsewhere around the country in recent years.

The raw emotion of these past two weeks was evident from the South to here on the North Coast where members of law enforcement understandably remain on edge about their own safety.

“It attacks the fabric of society when you attack police,” said Santa Rosa Police Chief Hank Schreeder.

Studies show, however, that law enforcement fatalities during the course of duty are on the decline. According to a Washington Post analysis of data from the Officers Down Memorial Page, the numbers have been steadily falling with each presidential administration.

During the Ronald Reagan years, for example, an average of 101 police officers were intentionally killed each year. It dropped to 81 deaths per year on average during the Bill Clinton era and to 71 deaths a year during the George W. Bush presidency. During the Barack Obama years, the average has dropped further to 62 per year, although it is expected to be higher this year due to these latest attacks.

Still, such numbers do little to calm nerves and ease racial tensions. The nation’s heart breaks for the families and friends of these officers - and all police who daily put their lives on the line. All police should feel supported by the community, just as all citizens should feel a sense of security by the presence of public safety officers, not be threatened by them. No one benefits by the rending of what Schreeder called the “fabric of society” that binds us.

But there are signs of hope. One concerns Cleveland Browns running back Isaiah Crowell who drew outrage when, in anger over the videos of police shootings of African-American men in Baton Rouge and Minneapolis, he posted on Instagram a drawing of a hooded man dressed in black cutting the throat of a police officer. He took it down soon after and said he regretted it, but the damage was done.

As reported by the Dallas Morning News, instead of joining those who railed against Crowell, Dallas police Sgt. Demetrick Pennie, the president of the Dallas Fallen Officer Foundation, invited Crowell to attend one of the funerals for the Dallas officers. And he did.

In an editorial, the Dallas Morning News praised Pennie for his outreach and said “we join him in commending Crowell for ‘“the courage of principled accountability.’ ”

“As leaders in the police community, it is our duty to establish and maintain the public trust,” Pennie later said. “My interactions with Mr. Crowell demonstrates that mutual understanding is possible as long as both parties are willing to listen.”

The benefits of more listening - and less reacting - couldn’t be better illustrated.