The following article by Nick Wing was posted on the Huffington Post website December 28, 2017:
A closer look at the data calls into question the effort to politicize attacks on law enforcement.
After a presidential campaign in which Donald Trump and his surrogates regularly claimed law enforcement was under assault from an increasingly lawless public, the first year of Trump’s presidency is shaping up to be among the safest ever for police.
A total of 45 officers have been feloniously killed in the line of duty in 2017, according to unofficial FBI data updated earlier this month. That number tracks closely to other counts from independent sites and marks a significant downturn from 2016, when a total of 66 officers were feloniously killed. Barring a catastrophe in the final days of the year, the annual total will be well below the average seen over the last 20 years.