State Policies and Officer Assaults: are we making law enforcement safer?

• In Event: Police Policies and Procedures

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the impact of state-level policy changes on assaults of law enforcement officers (LEOs) in the United States.
Methods: Pooled time series and cross-sections with Poisson regression were used to estimate the impact of changes to right-to-carry (RTC), three strikes, and permit-to-purchase (PTP) handgun laws on fatal and nonfatal assaults of LEOs. LEO assaults were stratified by weapon type (all methods, firearm, and handgun) and fatal outcome. Data was available 1984-2010 for fatal assaults and 2002-2010 for nonfatal assaults from the Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted database.
Results: RTC laws showed no association with fatal or nonfatal assaults. Three strikes laws were associated with a 31% increase in fatal firearm assaults (p<0.014). Missouri’s 2007 repeal of its PTP law was associated with a 166% increase in nonfatal handgun assaults (p<0.019).
Conclusions: Three strikes laws and the repeal of Missouri’s PTP handgun law increased the risk of firearm-related assaults to LEOs. Policymakers should consider potential risks to LEOs when considering policies of this type.

Authors

• Cassandra Kercher Crifasi, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

• Daniel Webster, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health