Thread by @PO_Potatoes

I hear or read this a lot, that policing isn't as dangerous as a lumberjack or truck driver.

And it's TRUE. Per capita more people are killed in a myriad of different careers and professions and law enforcement.

But here is why things are very different...

https://twitter.com/jUsT_A_bIkE_cOp/status/1305579423635091456

Most police officers will go through a career never having been shot and killed. Many may never ever draw their weapon or need to use force. What separates out LE from other more "deadly" professions is the human aspect.

A logger goes to work w/ specific tools and a job to do

Somewhere they may have an awareness they could get hurt and killed. But their work is more predictable.

Trees, chain saws, and heavy equipment will operate in a certain way. The "deadly" part comes from failures or misjudgments. Tools break, trees fall the wrong way

And workers get killed.

Truck drivers deal with weather issues, drunk drivers, mechanical issues, sleep deprivation and so on. However things are attributed to death are found to be predictable and measures are taken to prevent future mistakes and deaths.

Within LE we don't get that luxury. Yes we have our tools, wear items to reduce potential injury, get training on how to better handle a situation but the real danger comes from the human aspect.

After a deadly event investigations take place and we try to draw conclusions.

Why did this officer die? Why did this civilian force a deadly confrontation?

We can't say a chain broke, or a tire blew out, or a 10 cent seal ruptured and that's what caused a catastrophe and someone got killed. Humans don't come with pieces that can be found faulty.

Some might argue one's mental state might be found to be faulty, but people can go through an entire lifetime before the proverbial wheels come off and they snap, leaving many to wonder why it happened.

I would argue that other jobs are more dangerous, but not more deadly.

No one runs up and tries to, or succeeds, in killing someone because they chose to work in a certain profession. A logger sitting in an excavator doesn't have to worry about getting shot for just existing as a logger.

Yes, MOST cops don't have to worry either, but the

Unpredictability of another human creates an awareness LEOs need to possess.

So while I'd have a greater chance of being killed by a falling tree as a logger or in a traffic crash as a trucker, the human component of LE causes a dynamic shift that a more socially "normal"

Career an unfair, and IMO biased, comparison when talking death rates per capita.

Whenever you have humans as the center focus of a profession the "deadly" nature of the job increases even when the "dangerous" aspect doesn't.