13 Louisiana law enforcement officers died in the line of duty in 2020 according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.
CEO Marcia Ferranto said that’s the highest number they’ve recorded in Louisiana, and part of an unfortunate nationwide trend.
“We are looking at a 96 percent increase in officer fatalities. We came in at 264 this year, but those are preliminary numbers,” said Ferranto who explained those preliminary numbers are expected to rise as a backlog of suspected COVID deaths is tallied.
Ferranto said nine of the 13 are believed to have died from getting infected by coronavirus on the job.
“We go through a process that the law enforcement officers contracted the virus through direct exposure while on duty,” said Ferranto.
Ferranto said officers are getting exposed to a lot of COVID and it doesn’t just affect them.
“Through law enforcement, they are exposing themselves to a great sacrifice but through COVID they are also exposing their families,” said Ferranto.
Two of the other fatalities were related to firearms and the last two were traffic incidents.
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