LAPD officers dealing with rise in attacks

Echoing a national trend, attacks on police officers in Los Angeles are spiking dramatically this year, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said Tuesday.

Assaults on officers are up 42 percent from the same period last year, bringing the total to 97 attacks, Beck said. Officer involved shootings are up by 40 percent.

Among the attacks was the shooting of Officer Steve Jenkins, a K-9 handler who survived being shot in the jaw and shoulder on April 4 by a domestic violence suspect in Sylmar, sending police into a daylong standoff before the suspect was killed.

Jenkins was released from the hospital after three weeks of surgery and recovery.

The year 2010 was one of the deadliest on record for law enforcement deaths nationwide, with 162 officers killed in the line of duty, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

The number - which includes traffic accidents and shootings - was a 40 percent spike from 2009, when 117 officers were killed, and the first increase after a two-year decline in officer fatalities.

Shooting deaths were up 24 percent, from 49 deaths in 2009 to 61 in 2010.

So far in 2011, 92 officers have lost their lives across the U.S., with 39 killed by gunfire, according to the NLEOMF.

Meanwhile, violent and property crime rates in L.A. continue to reflect a falling national trend, with homicides down 8 percent and robberies down 12 percent, according to Beck.

Source: http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_18372062?source=rss

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