By CURT ANDERSON : Associated Press Writer Dec 2, 2002 : 11:26 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks produced the single deadliest day in the history of U.S. law enforcement -- 72 officers killed -- yet almost as many died in nonterrorist incidents during 2001 as violence against police rose to a four-year high.

The collapse of the World Trade Center in New York after the twin towers were struck by hijacked airliners accounted for 71 of last year's 142 law enforcement killings, the FBI reported Monday. The 72nd victim was a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officer who died when a plane commandeered by terrorists crashed in a Pennsylvania field.

Overshadowed by the enormity of those numbers is another statistic: 70 other law enforcement officers were killed by criminals around the country in 2001, the highest number since 1997 and a 37 percent increase over the 51 slain in 2000.

"Law enforcement is a high-risk occupation," the FBI report says. "The men and women who serve the public in this way place themselves in danger as a matter of routine."

Still, the nonterrorism deaths are far below those recorded in the 1970s, when it was common for more than 200 officers to die violently or in accidents every year, said Craig Floyd, chairman of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund in Washington. That number for 2001 would be about 148.

"Fewer police are being killed in the line of duty than there were 30 years ago," Floyd said. "We've got more police on the street than we've ever had. They have better training and they're no longer outgunned by the criminals."

The statistics, gleaned from 9,688 law enforcement agencies across the country, show that:

--Police are most likely to be shot to death with a handgun. All but nine of the nonterrorism murders involved a firearm.

--Night is the most dangerous time for a cop and Friday the most dangerous day. Sunday is the least violent.

--The South continues to lead the nation in law enforcement deaths, with 281 since 1992 -- more than twice as many as the next-highest region. Twenty-nine of the 2001 killings happened in the South.

--Two-thirds of police assailants had prior criminal records or arrests.

--Accidents claimed 78 law enforcers' lives, 64 involving car or motorcycle crashes.

In the nonterror killings, 24 of the officers were slain while trying to make arrests, with another 14 killed while they answered disturbance calls. In at least nine cases, the killings happened when an officer tried to help someone in danger, and three were murdered while intervening in assaults.

Seven officers were killed simply because they wore the police badge. In a Pennsylvania case, a 32-year-old officer was slain while making his regular on-foot rounds at a government-subsidized housing complex. One of the two suspects arrested, and later convicted, had apparently boasted of plans to kill a cop.

Seven other killings involved cars used as weapons, including three officers who were dragged to death, two who were intentionally run down and two whose cars were rammed by other vehicles. One Texas wildlife officer was run over by his own car after stopping to check on a roadside domestic dispute.

Of the nonterror cases, 73 suspects were identified and 52 arrested, although the statistics do not show whether they were convicted of a crime. Ten suspects were shot and killed, two by officers who later died themselves. Five police assailants killed themselves.

Thirty-eight of the 61 officers killed by guns in 2001 were wearing body armor, but in all but one case, the bullet found a vulnerable area such as an officer's head or armhole.

The 142 law enforcement killings occurred in 29 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, which had six. City police departments accounted for 105 of the fallen officers, with 24 working for county or sheriff's departments. Three state police officers and four federal law enforcement agents were killed in 2001.

Of the 71 deaths that happened at the World Trade Center, 37 were officers of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department, and 23 were from the New York City Police Department. An FBI agent and a Secret Service agent also died.

In addition to the criminal deaths, 78 law enforcement officers died in accidents in 2001, down from 84 in 2000.

There were also almost 57,000 assaults on officers as they performed their duties in 2001, with 80 percent of them involving hands, fists and feet.

-- Anonymous, December 03, 2002