A Deputy Sheriff responded to my post about the overtime money that Orange County Deputy Sheriff’s make with a remark about how they put themselves on the line. But do they really have higher fatality rates than other occupations? No.
I checked the 2006 fatality statistics published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor. Here are a few occupational fatality rates to consider:
- Policemen: 16.8%
- Firefighters: 16.6%
- Farmers and Ranchers: 37.2%
- Grounds Maintenance Workers: 13.5%
- Fishers and related Fishing Workers: 147.2%
- Construction Laborers: 21.4%
- Roofers: 33.5%
- Structural Iron and Steel Workers: 61%
- Operating Engineers and other Equipment Operators: 18.2%
- Aircraft Pilots and Flight Engineers: 90.4%
- Refuse and Recyclable Material Collectors: 40.7%
- Logging: 87.4%
- Mining Workers: 20.8%
- Truck Transportation: 27.2%
You can read the entire document by clicking here.
The bottom line is that many American workers die every year. But few of them make over six figures like our O.C. Deputy Sheriffs do. Is that fair? Is it fair that the Deputies can retire at 50? I don’t think so. The rest of the workers referenced here will be lucky to retire at 68.
Art,
You need to recalculate your figures. The numbers are for deaths per 100,000 not per 100
Here is the footnotes from the article regarding this.
“2 The rate represents the number of fatal occupational injuries per 100,000 employed workers and was calculated as
follows: (N/W) x 100,000, where N = the number of fatal work injuries, and W = the number of employed workers.”
One thing it does not address is longevity after retirement, as was noted by the LEO you quoted.
Couple of things that bear mentioning. Overtime costs are so high because recruitment and retention of law enforcement personnel has become a hugely problematic issue. To attract officers who are reasonably well-educated, who are not badge-heavy thugs intoxicated by the idea of carrying a gun, and who are socially competent and psychologically well-balanced enough to interact, sometimes under incredible stress, with people at their absolute worst behavior, salaries must be competetive with private industry.
I’ve often read the statistic about safety personnel dying soon after retirement (I’ve heard the 18 months quoted also, but I couldn’t find the source in a quick perusal of the internet; I’ll keep looking), but when I checked PERS, this was the explanation for the 3% at 50 formula, which I thought was interesting.
“Legislation established enhanced retirement plans in California to compensate employees who protect the public. These employees must remain physically fit because they are at severe risk of injury or death in the course of their duties. …
… “Safety employees receive enhanced retirement benefits to encourage them to retire earlier than employees grouped into the state’s miscellaneous and industrial retirement plans. This benefit is based on the presumption that safety members in their late 50s and 60s are physically less capable of apprehending criminals, rescuing people, and responding quickly in emergencies. The enhanced benefits include an increased retirement formula, a retirement cap that discourages them from working past a set age, and an industrial disability retirement that ensures that they will receive financial support in the event they are substantially injured in the course of their duties.”
The entire report can be found at cpr.ca.gov/report/cprrpt/issrec/stops/pm/so51.htm
#1 and 2,
If these guys are dying in their 50’s it has nothing to do with being cops and everything to do with being overweight and out of shape.
I will grant you that firefighters DO die a lot from strokes, when they fail to properly hydrate before fighting a fire. But this does NOT apply to cops.
Cops need to get in shape if they want to live longer. We could all stand to do more of that.
This is solid journalism and political science as well! Good job.
Well expressed Longboobs.
Art,
I believe the early death rates are due to adrenaline surges caused by the stress of the jobs. Police and firefighters are catapulted from extraordinary boredom to extreme excitement in a matter of seconds, on a regular basis. Your comment about overweight and out-of-shape cops caused me to take notice of the cops with whom I am in training this week. Of 44 attendees, only one is overweight, so I think that doughnut stereotype may be losing a basis in reality …
Could be TSB.
Art,
Just so you get the whole picture why don’t you see if you can book yourself into Laser Village at the Sheriffs dept. for a day. Get a picture of what sudden stress is like and imagine doing it for 30 years.
See if you can get a day of training with the fire authority over at SAC and see what those guys go through too. I couldn’t have done it on my best day.
Maybe you won’t be so quick to think either just need to keep fit. Cops don’t die at 50 something because they are bored and eat donuts. Fireman don’t drop dead at fire scenes from heart attacks or from lack of fitness either. Firemen are about the fittest bunch of guys I’ve ever seen and so are young cops. But when you hit 50 you hit a wall that only those with great genes can surpass.
I don’t know 5 cops who would do what firefighters do and I don’t know 5 firefighters that want to do what cops do. I don’t think either service quite understands why we each do what the other does. But we do it anyway and we pay the price physically. Go take a try out and see for yourself. Then get back to us.