Guns and Police Officer Deaths

Guest: David Swedler, Ph.D., Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Illinois Law enforcement officials from across the country gathered yesterday in Fox Lake, Illinois for the funeral services of a slain police lieutenant shot and killed last week as he chased three people following a report of suspicious activity. It’s tragic, but not unusual. Police officers die on the job at 3 times the national average for occupations. And you’d think that the most dangerous places to be a cop would be cities with the highest rates of violent crime. But recent analysis by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health indicate homicides of police officers correlate most strongly with statewide gun ownership, rather than violent crime rates.