Police Killings Reach Modern Low
Most of the 140 on-duty police deaths in 2008, as in other years, were accidental. The good news is that the number of police officers killed by non-accidental gunfire was smaller than it has been in more than 50 years.
Forty-one officers were shot and killed in 2008, down 40% from 68 in 2007. That's the lowest number since 1956, when 35 officers died from gunfire. The U.S. population today is 305 million, compared with 169 million in 1956.
Philadelphia had the most deaths of any police agency, with four.
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