By Chris Francescani
The Chicago Tribune
NEW YORK — The number of U.S. law enforcement officers killed in action dropped sharply last year,
a trend that policing experts said reflected the increased use of body armor by police.
In 2012, 48 law enforcement officers were killed on duty, down from 72 in 2011, according to Federal Bureau of Investigation figures released on Monday. Some 90 percent of those deaths involved firearms, statistics show.
“There’s been a sea change in the thinking on body armor” at the state and federal level, said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum.
Full Story: Wider use of body armor cuts deaths in U.S. federal police forces