Police 2020 Line of Duty Deaths are up significantly due to COVID
Washington DC Sept 24 2020 The COVID pandemic has hit the law enforcement community hard this year. As essential workers throughout the country, law enforcement officers have been in high-risk roles since the beginning.
Line of duty deaths due to COVID now number 114 nationally, but ODMP is tracking over 100 additional cases that are still pending verification. ODMP’s “Other” category, which includes COVID as a duty-related illnesses, is up 221% compared to the same time last year.
A total of 91 officers have died from other causes, including gunfire, auto-related incidents, and heart attacks. Gunfire deaths are down 3%; auto-related deaths have also increased, and are 17% higher than at this same time in 2019.
Overall, 2020 line of duty deaths are 90% higher than they were at this time last year.
The chart below shows how COVID deaths compare to other line of duty deaths this year (data was current as of Sept 7th and additional LODDs have since been added).
