Analysis 1886 to 1999 (Publicly Available Reporting)

The period 1886 to 1999 is the focus of this chapter. The data sources for the period are primarily publicly available reporting (PAR), supplemented by one substantive official review conducted in the late 1990s. The analysis considers the data from two perspectives. First, the number of actual lethal risk events encountered on a decade-by-decade basis – including deaths, injuries and disarming people armed with weapons. The second perspective looks at the number of officers killed or injured on the decade-by-decade basis charting these using a per capita approach of “per 100,000 citizens” or “per 100 officers” (applying the 75% baseline mentioned in Chaps. 2 and 5 ). The analyses used showed a plateauing of the number of lethal risk events being encountered, and a decline in the number of officers being killed or seriously injured “per 100,000 citizens”; while on a “per 100 officers (75%)” basis the number of events encountered declined, with a similar but gentler decline in the number of officers being killed or seriously injured.