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WASHINGTON – Despite a national campaign focused on police officer safety, the number of officers killed in the line of duty will increase for the second consecutive year, largely because of an alarming spike in ambush-style attacks, a Justice Department review has found.

By Jessica Stewart, AP

Kansas State Troopers pass near the covered body of a suspected shooter who shot and killed Sgt. David Enzbrenner on Dec. 9.
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Federal and local officials for the past two years have been troubled by the overall number of firearms-related fatalities, which are up 23% so far in 2011, even though violent crime has declined in much of the country, according to preliminary statistics compiled by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

Yet in 63 of the 65 shooting deaths that the Justice Department has analyzed this year, 73% were the result of ambush or surprise attacks, said Josh Ederheimer, deputy director of the Justice Department's Community Oriented Policing Services Office.

"It is an incredibly large number," Ederheimer said.

Earlier this year, a USA TODAY review of officer deaths highlighted a rising number of ambush slayings. In that August review, nearly 40% of the shooting deaths at that time were attributed to ambush or surprise attacks. That number was up from 31% in all of 2009, according to the most recent FBI study.

But Ederheimer said the ongoing Justice review has revealed a more troubling pattern of violence.

Although the pace of overall shooting deaths has slowed since midyear, the numbers continue to frustrate law enforcement officials who earlier this year convened a national review of officer safety.
Less than two weeks until the end of the year, the total number of officer deaths from all causes—174 —already marks the third largest death toll in the past decade.

Alarmed by the recent spikes in officer deaths, Attorney General Eric Holder in March called a meeting of law enforcement officials to examine the problem.

Since then, police departments were directed by the Justice Department to require officers to wear body armor or risk losing millions of dollars in federal aid.

(A 2009 study by the Police Executive Research Forum, a law enforcement think tank in Washington, D.C., found that 41% of departments did not require officers to wear armor at least some of the time.)

But Ederheimer said attention to increased use of body armor, while important, is not necessarily protecting some victims of ambush — many of whom are being shot in the head and other unprotected areas of the body.

Ederheimer said Justice Department officials have scheduled a Jan. 26 meeting of safety and training experts to discuss the overall firearm deaths, in addition to the increase in ambush attacks, to produce written guidelines for police agencies.

"This is a priority of the attorney general," Ederheimer said.
Among the most recent victims of a deadly ambush, Atchison, Kan., police Sgt. David Enzbrenner, 46, was shot in the back of the head Dec. 9, as he was responding to a nuisance complaint.

Police Chief Mike Wilson said the gunman, who was not apparently involved in the incident, attacked the officer from the rear and later fatally shot himself.

"It was an assassination," Wilson said.

Wilson said Enzbrenner, a 24-year veteran, was one of the "best-trained, best-educated and most-informed" of the department's 23 full-time officers. "He did all the right things to avoid something like this."

Before the Dec. 9 shooting, Wilson said he and his officers were aware of the rising number of officer fatalities and were taking appropriate precautions.

He said Enzbrenner was wearing body armor at the time of the attack, but the gunman chose to target the officer's head.

"When someone assassinates you from behind, all of the training, education and equipment is sometimes not much help,'' Wilson said.