Pictured: Probation/Parole Officer Jeffrey McCoy (EOW 5/18/2012).

A student from WV who attended OD12 has expressed an interest in developing a class similar to OD12 examining the correctional officers who have been killed in the line of duty.  In a preliminary analysis, I have found only 10 correctional officers (including probation and parole officers) who could be included in a study like this, since January 2010.  This includes COs and POs who have died in other kinds of felonious assaults, not just gunfire:

Wall, Leonard - Assault (guarding juvenile holds)
Chapin, Gary - Assault
Biendl, Jayme - Strangled (during escape attempt)
Malloy, Guy - Gunfire
Johnson, Ronald - Assault (beaten during escape attempt)
Jones, Sherri - Gunfire
Hammond, Clarence - Gunfire (robbed off-duty in uniform)
Thomas, Ruben - Stabbed
McCoy, Jeffrey - Gunfire
Bostic-Jones, Nikkii - Vehicle assault (struck while jogging)

Would you be interested in this reading a study like this?  Let me know what you think.

One of the unusual trends noted in 2011 was the involvement of five shooters with the same training history: all five were National Guardsmen.  Not every shooter had seen a combat tour in Iraq or Afghanistan, but several had.  Five men with the same kind of training shot and killed police officers in 2011.  Why do you think this might be happening?

One of my colleagues has pointed out that National Guardsmen may not have the unit support that active duty military personnel have to help them readjust to life outside of wartime service.  They may also experience some level of discrimination-- when compared to active duty or reservist military.  Are they disenfranchised by their military service?  Or, is it just a coincidence?

Have you had any experience with National Guardsmen that could shed some light on this area?  Do we have any police officers reading who are also Guardsmen and can discuss what the difference is from the inside?  I would be interested in learning more.

I've just learned of a project that I think is worth sharing.  A film-making team of police officers are making a documentary movie about fallen police officers.  By police, for police. They are raising money for their production costs, approximately $150k.  

Please check out this project for yourself at www.fallenproject.com.  Donate and offer support to this worthwhile project.  I am reaching out to them to see what I can do to help, with my work on Officer Down or with my deeper insight into these crimes against police.

Pictured: Park Ranger Margaret Anderson (EOW 01/01/2012)

I'm pleased to announce we are beginning our research on 2013 incidents for next year's Officer Down book and seminar.  My husband, also a former police officer, is serving as my partner on this project.  I'm happy to report that the numbers are down this year.  We don't know the reasons yet, if it is even possible to discern them.  However, 2012 is not over yet.  Let's hope the numbers stay down.

My gut instinct about the trends in 2013 is that we will continue to see ambushes and mentally ill shooters continuing to take out police officers.  We will continue to see traffic stops and pedestrian stops that are deadly.  And, unfortunately, the work of Officer Down will go on.  

Did you know that we lost ZERO state troopers to gunfire last year?  Not so in 2012.  We lost two WV troopers this past week as a result of a shooting on the freeway.  As I took the stage at the NRA to give my class last week, my students learned about this terrible incident.   The media reports suggest the shooter carried a firearm with him into the back of the patrol car and retrieved it while he was handcuffed.  We had NO incidents like this is 2011, but I do remember cases like this from my days as a recruit.  This is yet another tragedy for law enforcement.

My greatest hope is that my work will change the way that we police for the better.  If my work saves one life, changes one line-of-duty incident from an execution to a survivable shooting, or equips one officer with the tools to better prepare others for duty in these dangerous times, I will count this project as a success.