I don't see the trend that you are talking about: Year-by-Year Breakdown of Law Enforcement Deaths throughout U.S. History. There was a spike in the 30s, presumably due to Prohibition. And another spike in the 70s and early 80s, presumably due to the breakdown in law and order in big cities that were governed by liberals. But there definitely was no spike in the late 80s or 90s and the number of yearly LEO deaths seems to have been fairly stable since the 1980s even though the population has increased from 227 million in 1980 to 314 million in 2012.
it wasn’t more cops being killed....it was the manner in which they were dying.
The training is always a reflection of past experience.
Tactical training came in due to the high risk search warrants which were being served.
As an example of this...in the later 90’s cops who had been taught weapon retention...techniques to keep your gun in your holster in a fight.
The results were that officers were spending all their energy holding their holster and began being beaten unconscious then having their gun taken and then being executed.
The answer to that was training to be more aggressive and direct physically (demeanor and handling) upon initial contact with a non compliant suspect. This creates a situation where the suspect will either submit and follow orders or if they don’t, the officer is prepared for the ensuing physical fight.
Now you are seeing more complaints about rudeness and excessive force when the officers are speaking and physically acting how they are taught.
Officers being killed with their own guns is way down.
The push back is that they are trying to alter the training in reaction to the perceived problems rudeness and excessive force...and take out the aggressiveness which makes officers safer...so in about 12-15 years you will see a spike in officer deaths from being beaten to death or having their own gun taken away.
5-7 years ago there was a spike in deaths of officers from traffic collisions...driving deaths...no you see a response by police agencies in their driving training, eliminating pursuits, and giving discipline for collisions that they feel are preventable.
The truth is there is no perfect policeman or perfect way to do policing.....we just have, each of us, an ideal idea of perfection in our head that can’t be matched in the real world because humans are not perfect.