The Hill reported that COVID-19 accounted for more than 66 percent of all law enforcement deaths in the line of duty in 2020 and 2021, according to newly compiled statistics. The report from the Officer Down Memorial Page found that more law enforcement officers died from COVID-19 than from every other cause combined since the pandemic began in early 2020.
In 2020, 245 officers died from COVID-19, more than from gunfire, automobile crashes and other illnesses. So far in 2021, 228 law enforcement deaths have been recorded as a result of COVID-19 related illness, out of 356 deaths total.
2020’s death toll was the highest in 50 years, adding that the “silent killer” of COVID-19 was still on the offensive. “It’s climbing at a time when it should be decreasing with the knowledge, the expertise, the amount of training and education,” said, Patrick Montuore, the executive director of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, according to Bay News 9.
124 officers died in Texas, 53 died in California and 44 died in New York. Over 500 officers died due to COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. Despite these sobering numbers, The New York Times reported that police unions are fighting vaccine mandates. The head of Chicago’s police union, John Catanzarra, on October 12, 2021 encouraged officers to defy the city’s vaccine reporting mandate and risk being sent home.