Ambush cop killings not uncommon

WASHINGTON — Fatal ambushes, similar to an attack this weekend on two New York City police officers, have been among the leading causes of firearm-related police deaths for the past several years, according to data maintained by a national law enforcement group.

At midyear, an analysis conducted by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, which closely tracks officer deaths, found that ambushes were the second-leading cause of firearm killings. As recently as 2012, ambushes accounted for the most fatal shootings involving police: 30% of the 50 firearm deaths that year were attributed to such attacks.

Though officer deaths, including fatal shootings, have been subject to dramatic swings over the years (last year's overall total of 100 deaths marked the fewest since 1944), law enforcement analysts say ambushes have remained some of the most persistent and hardest threats.

"It really is all about awareness and paying attention to your surroundings,'' said Darrel Stephens, executive director of the Major Cities Chiefs Association. "There is an emphasis on being hyper-vigilant, just because this threat is out there, but the ability to sustain that vigilance is very difficult.''

Stephens, a former Charlotte-Mecklenburg, N.C., chief, said authorities have attempted to bolster their defenses by drawing from a series of incidents.

Among them: the sniper attack in September on a Pennsylvania State Police barracks that left one trooper dead and another wounded. The attack prompted a vast and costly manhunt throughout the state conducted by federal and local authorities.

The alleged shooter, Eric Frein, was elevated to the FBI's list of most wanted suspects before his capture in October.

"We have learned a lot, but I don't think we can prevent it altogether,'' Stephens said. "It's a big challenge.''

Following a rash of violence against police, Attorney General Eric Holder in 2011 created the National Officer Safety and Wellness Group to review incidents, including ambush attacks. At the group's most recent meeting last week, Stephens said ambush incidents were once again among the points of discussion.

The FBI also is in the midst of review of police ambush killings that launched last year. Program investigators are reviewing the motivations of assailants in cases from 1995 to 2011. The report is due out in 2016.

James Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, said constant training may be the most effective, though not always foolproof, guard against such attacks.

"Every police officer has to understand that there is a segment of people out there who, at some level, hold a deep-seated resentment against the police,'' Pasco said. Those tensions have grown, he said, since a police officer shot Michael Brown in August in Ferguson, Mo., and Eric Garner died in July after being put in a chokehold by a New York police officer in Staten Island. "Every officer has to be mindful of this.''

The federal grant program that provides criminal justice funding to state and local law governments is named for a slain New York Police Department officer, Edward Byrne, who was killed in a brutal ambush-style attack in 1988.

Byrne, 22, was fatally shot in his patrol car while protecting a witness.

Like the Byrne murder, the weekend attacks brought an outpouring of reaction, including from the federal government.

"This was an unspeakable act of barbarism,'' Holder said.