WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is preparing to review a rash of deadly attacks on police following the fatal shootings of 10 officers since Jan. 1.
Bernard Melekian, the Justice Department's Community Oriented Policing Services director, said analysts would study whether deficits in training, resources or officer behavior may have contributed to a troubling series of violent attacks in at least five states.
"I think it is too early to tell if there is an underlying theme here," Melekian said Tuesday. "The fact is that police work is an inherently dangerous business; very often you don't know where the danger is coming from."
The Justice review comes after two officers were shot to death in St. Petersburg, Fla., Monday while police in Miami were mourning the murders of two officers there.
"I have never seen anything like it," said Craig Floyd, chairman of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, which closely tracks officer deaths. "We must do everything in our power to stop these senseless and heinous crimes against our law enforcement personnel," he said in a statement.
"Coming off 2010, my gracious, it's a really bad way to start a new year," said Mark Marshall, president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.
Marshall, the police chief in Smithfield, Va., said the association is just beginning to assemble a national database, tracking assaults on police that result in serious injury and death.
The database, part of the Center for the Prevention of Violence Against the Police, will be used to help determine whether new training or resources are needed to better deal with future violent confrontations.
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