NCJ Number
130712
Journal
Law and Order Volume: 39 Issue: 6 Dated: (June 1991) Pages: 28-31
Date Published
1991
Length
4 pages
Annotation
Hazardous duties of rural law enforcement officers are described in encounters with both people and the environment.
Abstract
Of the 66 officers feloniously killed in 1989, 10 were rural officers compared to the 15 killed in cities of 250,000 people or more. Another four were from State agencies and four more were suburban county officers according to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) statistics. Rural officers including game wardens and conservation officers tend to patrol alone because of more efficient use of personnel and partly because the risk is not as great as in cities. However, they face danger from both the environment and from people. Thirty-two percent of assaults against conservation officers involved firearms as compared to 5 percent of assaults against police officers in general. Handguns, long arms, and shotguns were used in ambushes and encounters with dangerous felons or individuals involved in illicit activity in remote residences. Environmental hazards include inclement weather, rugged terrain, and booby traps used by outdoor marijuana cultivators. Additional hazards can be encountered with communications systems in remote areas, dependence on own resources because of no practical back-up or relief conveniently available, and individual handling of prisoners and transport. Unlike the urban counterpart, the rural officers have to face the hazards alone, depending on their own resources to cope. 3 photographs