Policing safer now than in previous decades despite recent officer deaths: expert

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Justin Piché, a criminology professor at the University of Ottawa, says those officers’ deaths in a short period do not necessarily point to a new trend.

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Piché, who has collected and analyzed data on Canadian police deaths from the past 64 years, said current figures are within historical range, taking into account that the number of police officers has significantly increased since 1962.

“The number of deaths as well as the rate of deaths of on-duty police officers was much higher, generally speaking, in the 1960s, the 1970s, and early 1980s,” he said in a phone interview Tuesday.

According to a recent report by Piché, there were 416 on-duty police officer deaths across Canada during the study period, averaging about 6.5 deaths per year.

The deadliest years for police in the 64-year period were 1962 and 1968, which saw 16 on-duty officer deaths each, the report said. That was followed by the year 1964, which had 15 such deaths.

Piché noted that police officers are more likely to die in an accident than to be intentionally killed, with 58 per cent of total on-duty deaths stemming from accidents.

The report also noted that while there was a spike in 2023 after eight officers died on duty that year — six of them as a result of intentional violence — there were no on-duty police deaths in 2024 and 2025.

Car accidents are the leading cause of on duty police officer deaths in Canada, causing 160 of 416 total deaths. Intentional gunfire follows at 149 deaths, the report said.

“I think while policing carries a lot of symbolism, there are other groups of people in Canada who die for a living at higher rates than police officers,” he said, adding that industries including fishing, mining, forestry and construction generally have higher rates of workplace deaths when compared to policing.

“That’s not to minimize the deaths of anyone or any group of workers, but the fact of the matter is that policing, as far as dying for a living goes, is safer than working in a number of other industries.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 24, 2026.

Rianna Lim, The Canadian Press