WHEREAS, one of the goals of SafeShield, an initiative by the IACP, is to gather empirical data in a way that is complementary to the continuing work of the FBI Law Enforcement Officers Killed Analysis Project and to seek ways in which the research can acquire the ability to provide timely officer alerts about emerging safety threats; and 

WHEREAS, the SafeShield Committee has identified that the police culture is far too accepting of police deaths with a commonly expressed view that death is an inherent risk of policing; and

WHEREAS, there have been 67 police officers killed in the line of duty in the first half of 2014, a 31 percent increase as compared to the first half of 2013, and several incidents involving the killing of multiple police officers, it has made officer safety a large issue on the minds of everyone in the law enforcement family; and

WHEREAS, when officer tragically loses his/her life in the line of duty, it is devastating to families, friends and fellow officers; and

WHEREAS, law enforcement professionals today face criminals who have better weapons, more willingness to be violent, demonstrated disdain for authority and disregard for human life; and

WHEREAS, the number of police officers killed in the line of duty in 2013 was 105.

WHEREAS, according to Department of Justice statistics, on the average a law enforcement officer is killed in the line of duty somewhere in the United States every 53 hours and annually, for every 1,000 police officers, 77.8 are the victim of a violent crime while on duty; and

WHEREAS, the PIO Section Membership is positioned to inform the community of police officers killed in the line of duty through various news media outlets; and, now therefore, be it

RESOLVED, that the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) duly assembled at its 121st Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida, will establish a campaign to provide the approved speedy release of accurate information by the IACP Public Information Officers Section (PIOS) to local and regional news media outlets to make every incident of a police officer injured or killed in the line duty a matter of grassroots awareness; and be it, now,

FURTHUR RESOLVED, that the IACP take a leadership role in encouraging its member chiefs to establish a long-term, ramped-up effort to utilize existing databases to gather and analyze the causes of police deaths and provide that statistical information to the PIOS for dissemination to all news media outlets in the region concerning every incident where a police officer is killed in the line of duty to help raise the consciousness of and garner the support of the community; and be it, now,

FURTHUR RESOLVED, that the IACP President order that copies of this resolution be forwarded to the President of the National Sheriffs Association with a plea for their member sheriffs to join the IACP in the passage of this resolution.

Submitted by: Public Information Officers Section

PIO.013.T14