Industry Focus
Alarming Trend with Police
- By Ralph C. Jensen
- Feb 01, 2017
I’ve been writing, professionally, for
40 years. The first story that I ever
worked on was a triple homicide,
and a contract murder that was related.
Back then, I didn’t think reporting
could get any worse.
This event in my life was horrible, partly
because I knew all the people involved,
some better than others. You always think
it won’t happen where you live, but it does.
In today’s violent world, police officers have
to think twice before going on duty. They
should not have to worry about their own
lives, but that is certainly not the case today.
It seems as though every week there is a
reported police shooting, with devastating
after effects. I live in the Dallas Metroplex,
and I have witnessed a part of this horrid
environment.
On July 7, 2016, Dallas police officers
were ambushed during a peaceful rally
in downtown Dallas. Nine other officers
were injured, five of them died. The shooter
was Micah Xavier Johnson, who reportedly
wanted to kill white police officers.
He fled inside a building where a standoff
occurred. Police were able to neutralize
the threat with a bomb, and the standoff
was over.
This shooting was the deadliest incident
for law enforcement since the 9/11 attacks.
Then, the first week of December 2016
saw six officers shot in six days, two of them
died. It wasn’t a good week for law enforcement,
not only in Georgia where the two
officers died, but within the fraternity of
police officers. Georgia has had one of the
worst years in terms of police fatalities.
About 140 miles southwest of Atlanta,
Americus Police Officer Nicholas Ryan
Smarr responded to a 911 call about a domestic
dispute at a local apartment complex.
His best friend, Georgia Southwestern
University officer Jody Smith, responded
to the call as backup. At the scene, Minguell
Lembrick shot and killed Smarr, 25,
and critically wounded Smith, who later
died from his injuries. Smith, who planned
to get married this upcoming spring, had
asked Smarr to be his best man.
With two weeks left in 2016, the National
Law Enforcement Officers Memorial
Fund had documented 64 police officers
shot to death. That’s a 68 percent increase
over the same 50-week period in 2015, according
to the group’s records.
Law enforcement may be seen as a career
where officers have the advantage of
security. They don’t. Measures must be
taken now to ensure that police officers are
protected and that no one officer responds
to a call alone.
This article originally appeared in the February 2017 issue of Security Today.
About the Author
Ralph C. Jensen is the Publisher/Editor in chief of Security Today magazine.