PHOENIX — There have been nine shootings involving officers in Phoenix in 2024, Phoenix Police Chief Michael Sullivan said.
In eight of those shootings, someone shot at officers. In three of them, an officer was hit by gunfire.
The latest was early Tuesday morning near 10th Street and Southern where a suspect in a fight with officers pulled out a gun and shot one. The other officer returned fire, killing the suspect, police said.
"It's indicative of the violence that officers face every day on the streets," Sullivan said Tuesday morning.
According to data from the Phoenix Police Department, officer-involved shootings have generally been trending down, though the last two years have stayed roughly the same level.
The all-time high for police shootings was in 2018, with 44 shootings.
Subsequent years have been up and down, but have not come close to that level.
The FBI keeps records of law enforcement officers who are killed and assaulted in the line of duty.
The data, however, is not broken down by department. But over the past ten years, the number of officers who have been injured in the line of duty has generally increased.
Finally, the FBI also keeps data (although departments voluntarily submit it and not all departments do) on violent crime nationwide.
According to the FBI data, Arizona is consistently above the national average when it comes to the rate of violent crime. So are California and New Mexico, for comparison, with New Mexico at a much higher rate of violent crime.
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