Police officers put their lives on the line to protect the citizens they serve every day, and they’re prone to serious injuries in the process.
I hear from folks in search of lawyers for workers’ comp from Macon, GA to Atlanta, and everywhere in between on a regular basis. The people who call me come from a variety of backgrounds. In my last article, I wrote about some of the most dangerous jobs in America, and focused on cops briefly, but I thought they deserved a little more attention than that.
Here are some stats pertaining to the common injuries that cops face:
Assaults
On average, there are over 57,000 assaults on police officers annually across the United States. Among them, over 15,000 of them will lead to injury, and over 100 to death. While those numbers are down from years past, they’re still too high.
Stress
An extensive study in the Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease from a few years back showed that of 262 traumatized police officers who were evaluated, seven percent of them had posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and 34 percent showed posttraumatic stress symptoms. The numbers are about the same today. While we often think of the physical toll that work injuries take on us, we cannot forget the importance of treating mental injuries with the utmost seriousness, too. Especially for the brave police officers who dive into traumatic situations for the sake of others.
Car Accidents
In 2014, 10 officers were killed as a result of being struck by a vehicle. Furthermore, 32 were killed in auto accidents in general. That’s 42 total. 548 officers were killed as a result of a car accident between 2005 and 2014 across the United States. That’s far too many.
General Info
Roughly 15 police officers per every 100,000 die in the line of duty. That’s four times the average workforce rate in the United States. As for non-fatal cop injuries, 63 percent of lost work time is a product of stress or strains, and of that, 33 percent can be equated to back injuries.
Whether it’s a cop or someone in a different line of work, it’s never easy to see anyone get injured on the job, but as a work lawyer in Athens, GA, I face frustrating stories of workplace accidents every day. If you’ve been injured at work, you need someone on your side. Give me a call and I’ll be glad to go over your options.
Whether it’s a cop or someone in a different line of work, it’s never easy to see anyone get injured on the job, but as a work lawyer in Athens, GA, I face frustrating stories of workplace accidents every day. If you’ve been injured at work, you need someone on your side. Give me a call and I’ll be glad to go over your options.
The post Police Officer Injury Statistics appeared first on The Law Offices of Darwin F. Johnson.