Statistics about law enforcement you will NEVER hear

We’re being absolutely bombarded with stories about police-involved deaths. Elected officials are demanding we “defund the police” and dismantle “systemic racism” they say exists in our law enforcement agencies across the nation.

We never, ever hear stories about the heroism and sacrifice of our law enforcement professionals.

And we also never hear the stark reality.

In a given year, the Bureau of Justice Statistics estimates that 61.5 million people have at least one contact with a law enforcement officer. For example, in 2019, the FBI reported that “law enforcement made an estimated 10,085,207 arrests.”

In 2019, records show 999 people were shot and killed by officers. That means only 0.0099 percent of people who might have otherwise been arrested in 2019 were shot and killed by an officer. It also means an even more microscopic 0.0016 percent of all people who encountered a law enforcement officer that year were killed.

Of the 999 people killed by police officers in 2019, according to Gonzaga University’s “Say Their Name” memorial, only five were black and unarmed.

Since 2017, less than 30 unarmed black people have been killed by police. Some may argue the statistics are underreported or overlooked.

But at this moment, one thing about law enforcement that is definitely underreported or overlooked is the brave work officers do, and continue to do, even as they are being roundly criticized.

In February this year, Officer Darian Jarrott of the New Mexico State Police, had a routine traffic stop on a lonely stretch of highway outside Las Cruces, NM. It was the last traffic stop he would ever make. The suspect, Omar Cueva was a drug dealer, and known to have a violent criminal past.

Jarrott asked Cueva to exit the vehicle. He came out of the driver’s side holding a semi-automatic rifle and fired at least one shot at Officer Jarrott as he was walking to the rear of the vehicle.

Cueva fired several more rounds at Jarrott who was struck by gunfire and killed.

As Cueva ran toward the front of the truck on the passenger’s side, he shot Jarrott point-blank in the back of the head.

Last month Master Patrol Officer Jesse Madsen prevented a drunk driver (barreling down the highway at over 100 miles per hour toward oncoming traffic) from slamming head-on into a young woman’s car by placing his car between them. Madsen, a father of three and beloved husband, didn’t survive the impact.

Service and sacrifice were nothing new to Jesse Madsen. He was a combat military veteran who served in the United States Marines and United States Army during three combat tours, and was seriously wounded in an IED attack during one deployment.

He was also black.

But no one on CNN or MSNBC has ever told his story.