2014 is the second safest year to be a police officer since 1959

While many allege that it is increasingly dangerous to be a cop, the data tell a different story. As Radley Balko reports at the Washington Post, America is getting safer and safer for police officers: "In terms of raw number of deaths, 2013 was the safest year for cops since World War II. If we look at the rate of deaths, 2013 was the safest year for police in well over a century.”

2014 has seen a slight increase in violence against cops, but it is on track to be the second-safest year since 1959 in terms of total deaths and the safest year in more than a hundred years in terms of death rate:

(via The Washington Post)

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While some have argued that militarized police forces are the cause of this decrease in violence, which corresponds neatly with the overall plunge in violent crime, Balko points out that the bulk of aggressive police actions are actually targeted at drug crime — and that has not seen a comparable decrease. Use of body armor, however, is an effective and nonviolent way to decrease police deaths.