Their mistaken beliefs about the dangers of random encounters definitely incentivize bad behavior.
I'm like 55% sure it's something I'm not comfortable legally banning individuals from choosing this for themselves - but I would like get rid of that style training and mindset. So idk maybe I'd be ok with limiting personal freedom here specifically because it's harmful to the greater community. Maybe similar to other public health laws that put public ahead of individual. Maybe there is legal precedent I don't know about to sway this tradeoff?
https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2020/05/bob-kroll-...
I think you are right that they are not high up on the most dangerous jobs though I’d argue it still makes sense to fear deadly encounters the same way loggers should very much fear being crushed by a tree.
I do however agree that this fear is taken far past what is rational though which does result in a lot of bad behavior.
I actually don’t think the should be trained to fear deadly encounters, I believe they should be trained to assess risk and deescalate.
https://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/fbi-release...
I recall reading about the heart attack stat too, but I can't remember where it was from. It could account for the number of officers who died from heart attacks while off duty too.
Regardless, the amount of time, effort, and attention paid to the possibility of a felonious death seems out of proportion to the amount time, effort, and attention paid to accidental deaths, even though accidental deaths are almost as likely to occur.
Yes, the figures can show you that the observed death rate is low. But that doesn't 100% capture the intuition of what it means for a job to be safe.
Remember, a big reason it's so safe (in this sense) is that officers go through a lot of training that protects them from the occasional nutjob. If they slip up on those protocols, they can easily become another officer killed in the line of duty.
You'll notice that, by the same token, firebreathers and sword jugglers and trapeze artists don't make the top ten either. Does that mean they're safe jobs?
In a sense, yes, like policing.
But in another sense, no. It means the only people who do them are people who are super deft about doing them safely and can religiously follow the safety protocols. And the job can quickly become unsafe if the average person, like you and me, tried to do them and slipped up in following those protocols.
Either way, it absolutely doesn't follow that if they just "trained the cops not to prepare for any encounter being a nutjob with a gun", that the job would (directly from that) become safer.
What I was stating was that officers should go through more safety training to reduce the number of accidental deaths.
Heart attacks...because they push themselves beyond their own limits for the safety of the public?
And in what world does "It's not in the X most dangerous jobs category" mean it isn't a dangerous job? Someone deciding to do deep sea fishing doesn't mean that police work becomes less or more dangerous. And other jobs in the top 15, you find people that get themselves killed at high rates for selfish motives(e.g. pizza delivery drivers blowing through red lights for bigger tips), which is not how it happens with police officers.
Mostly because they drive a lot.
> Heart attacks...because they push themselves beyond their own limits for the safety of the public?
Sure it's stressful, but heart attacks are one of the leading causes of death in America.
> And in what world does "It's not in the X most dangerous jobs category" mean
It means that the rhetoric coming from their unions and their own training is overblown. IT is obviously a dangerous job, but for example working as a roofer or cab driver are far more dangerous. It's about perspective. And in most parts of the country it isn't a dangerous job at all. I don't think it should be controversial to talk about these things in context and to make use of factual information.
You can't shoot your way out of a heart attack or random car crashes.
(Also, and this just continues your already lost line of argumentation, "exertion" does not cause heart attacks, considering it's basically a synonym for sports. Too much red meat, beer, alcohol, anger, air pollution, and, yes, donuts do)
Too much exertion will trigger a heart attack. Which is why heart attacks spike the day after it snows, because people with susceptible hearts go out and do vigorous, unusual activity.