What a great turnout in North Whitehall, PA for the final Officer Down seminar this year.  We had around 80 attendees and a fantastic set of hosts.  Many thanks to Jodi Rowlands at Lehigh Carbon Community College for allowing us to use their venue.  And, our deepest gratitude to Lt. John Christman for making this event possible.  

South Whitehall Police Department has  great group of men and women devoted to public safety and service, led by a devoted  boss, Chief Thomas Toth.  We felt honored to spend time in their company.  Did you know that the state of PA has the most police departments in the country?  Many of these departments are five-man organizations and some have only one or two full-time officers.  

One such department was the Freemansburg Police Department, where Officer Robert Lasso (EOW 8/11/2011) worked.  We are grateful to have had the opportunity to talk with officers who knew him and worked with him during our trip to the Allentown area and look forward to presenting again next year. 

We had the privilege of presenting OD12 at Fairfax County Criminal Justice Academy this week in Chantilly, VA.  Thank you to all of the attendees who took the time to come out and hear the stories of fallen officers.  FFCJA has a great facility that would make any police instructor proud to be invited there.

Thank you to Sgt. Amy Gaisor for making this class possible.

Pictured: Celena Hollis (EOW 6/24/2012)

I have just started researching incident #13 in my study of 2012 line-of-duty deaths, which is the murder of Denver Police Officer Celena Hollis.  She was shot and killed at a jazz festival when she intervened in a fight.  

Another tragedy for the community of law enforcement.  However, this is no typical murder.  Let's take a minute to look at the statistics.  As of June 2012, 25% of the officers killed by gunfire are female officers.  Yet, female officers only account for about 12% of police officers nationwide, so they are seeing major over-representation in this year's line of duty deaths due to firearms.  Why is this happening?

Those of you who know me will know that I have great respect for women who serve in law enforcement.  As a former police officer myself, I understand the very real risks of working in the field and the antagonism and adversity female officers can face from their colleagues, supervisors and families.  Women police can be great patrol assets because of their ability to talk suspects into custody, their skills in collaborating (rather than competing) with others and their tenacity is legendary.  Women make outstanding cops and are well-known for their ability to do the job as well as men.

This is what is puzzling to me.  Last year, I only had two female officers in my study: Deputy Suzanne Hopper and Detective Amanda Haworth.  This year so far: Park Ranger Margaret Anderson, Corporal Sandy Rogers, Deputy Barbara Pill, and Officer Celena Hollis.  Why is there such a dramatic increase in the line-of-duty deaths of female officers in 2012?  Or is it just a coincidence that has nothing to do with gender?