Police Fatalities Down This Year Despite Double Killing This Weekend
The FBI and another police monitoring organization reveal the data.
— -- The number of police officers who have died in the line of duty dramatically increased last year compared to the year before, the FBI announced today after compiling the latest data.
The information comes after this weekend's shooting in Mississippi that left two officers dead, though a non-profit group that monitors police deaths notes that the number of police fatalities is down so far in 2015 as compared to this time last year.
The FBI noted that the number of officers who were feloniously killed in 2014 -- 51 officers -- is far higher than the 2013 total of 27 officers, a year that marked a record low. The organization included all deaths that were the results of gunfire or where vehicles were used as weapons.
Annual Number of Deaths
Between 1980 and 2014, the annual average was 64 officer deaths, making the 2013 total the lowest in the 35 years since records were kept.
The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, a non-profit group based out of Washington, D.C., reported that at this point last year, there were 45 police fatalities.
The figures come after two Mississippi police officers in Hattiesburg were killed during a traffic stop on Saturday, highlighting what is widely seen as one of the most dangerous parts of a law enforcement officer's job.
"When we talk to our members, they say that no traffic stop is a routine stop," Tim Reichert, a spokesman for the Southern States Police Benevolence Association, told ABC News today.
"They're always on their highest guard during those because you're basically walking into to an uncertain situation," he added.
In a statement today, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said: “Their loss is made even more tragic by the fact that, on the day they were killed this past Saturday, the country began observing Police Week -- a time when we pause to remember and honor the more than 20,000 law enforcement officers who have been killed in the line of duty.
"The murder of these young men is a devastating reminder that the work our brave police officers perform every day is extremely dangerous, profoundly heroic, and deeply deserving of our unequivocal support," she added. "All Americans owe these courageous citizens a debt of gratitude. The Department of Justice stands in solidarity with our brothers and sisters at every level of law enforcement as we mourn this most recent loss."
Increased Tensions
Analysts believe tensions between police and citizens have been at an all-time high over the past several months following a string of high profile cases where unarmed individuals were killed by law enforcement officers.
So while the number of police fatalities may not be higher this year, the sensitivity around violence towards or by law enforcement is heightened.
"It comes and goes in cycles," former New York Police Department Sgt. Joe Giacalone told ABC News in the wake of the protests over police brutality in Baltimore following the death of Freddie Gray. "We've seen the backlash like never before, however, because I think social media is a game changer."
"Every time some scuffle happens or some incident happens that the public perceives to be a bad thing, the social media pumps out a 24 hour a day," he said.
ABC News' Jack Date and Mike Levine contributed to this report.
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