"You don't often think about what could happen to you in this line of work because if you do, you'd have to say, 'Why am I doing this?'" Sgt. Paul Thompson of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department said on HLN. An Indianapolis police officer, David Moore was critically injured after being shot three times Sunday during a traffic stop.
Still, law enforcement isn't among the top 10 most dangerous professions, according to the latest ranking by the U.S. Bureau of Labor. Fishermen, lumberjacks and construction workers have more dangerous jobs, according to the list.
Moreover, experts note and statistics indicate that police officers today appear appreciably less likely to be killed in the line of duty than they were decades ago.
"Police shootings are very, very rare events in this country," said Peter Manning, a professor at Northeastern University's College of Criminal Justice. "When they happen together (like this week), it's even rarer."
In 2009, the most recent year for which national statistics are available, the FBI reported 48 law enforcement officers were "feloniously killed" -- marking a significant jump from the previous year, when 41 died by malicious means.
Over the years, the numbers have fluctuated. Still, over time, they do tell a story.
For instance, in the last three years of the 1980s, 74, 78 and 66 law enforcement officers were killed -- compared to 58, 41 and 48 killed annually over the tail end of the 2000s, the most recent decade. Taking the average of those two three-year subsets equates to a roughly 48% decrease in the past 20 years.
Gary Bradford, a retired Tampa, Florida, police officer, said he doesn't "get caught up in trends (because) they really don't matter" to those patrolling the streets. What he said he noticed personally is that "the intensity and the violence increased" in his time on the force, as did the complexity of the job.
