A Rasmussen poll taken last week found that 58 percent of respondents now believe there is now a “war on police.” Just 27 percent disagreed. Let us keep you up to date with the latest public opinion news. I think that this 'war on cops' rhetoric is just another way to protect police from accountability. And he also admits we may be seeing a few more ambush killings — cops attacked just because they're cops. But he says the numbers suggest officers are also facing fewer attacks: The number of assaults on police has also fallen, though not as sharply. Here’s another graph from Perry that plots those figures: 
 
 As you can see, by this measure 2015 is shaping up to be the second safest year for police ever, after 2013. Speaking of which, it’s important to note again here that 2013 was an abnormally and historically low year for police fatalities, as this graph from University of South Carolina law professor (and former police officer) Seth Stoughton shows. pic.twitter.com/jPCMPOhlL7 — Seth Stoughton (@PoliceLawProf) September 10, 2015 
 
 So when police advocates say that 2014 saw an 80+ percent increase in homicides of cops over 2013, remember a few things: First, 2013 wasn’t just an all-time low, it was an all-time low by a significant margin. Second, the 2013 figure was so low that even a small increase will look large when expressed as a percentage. Third, the figure for the following year, 2014, (51 officers killed) was essentially consistent with the average for the previous five years (50 killed), and still lower than any five-year average going back to 1960. Another common response from police organizations and their advocates is that the reduction in fatalities is due to better medical care and improvements in protective gear such as bulletproof vests. The number of murders of police was about the same as 2012, and actually a lot lower than 2011. Incessantly telling cops that they’re under fire can condition them to see the people with whom they interact not as citizens with rights, but as potential threats. It also just makes for a miserable work life. If you’ve been trained to think your job is getting progressively more dangerous, and that a significant percentage of the people you encounter on a daily basis want to do you harm, you’re going to be less tolerant of dissent. There’s very little belief in any of the groups, though, that the comments are improving police performance. An over-emphasis on and obsession with a “war on cops” would be dangerous and counterproductive even if it were true. Among those who don’t think there is a war on police going on, 35% say the comments improve police performance; 30% say it makes things more dangerous, while 28% think the comments have no impact. "Yes, there are people in every profession who cross the line and should be fired," he continued. And it’s true that because of all of this, the public as a whole today finds police officers as a whole less trustworthy than in the past.
– A recent Rasmussen poll found 58% of respondents believe a "war on police" exists. The sentiment is being echoed publicly: After Shannon J. Miles was arrested for killing Sheriff Deputy Darren Goforth at a gas station in Houston, a local DA remarked that "there are a few bad apples in every profession. That does not mean there should be open warfare declared on law enforcement." NPR reports some people are using this stat as evidence of that war: In 2013, 27 US officers were "feloniously killed"; a year later, the number was 51. But Seth Stoughton, a former cop and assistant law professor, says this so-called war is, in fact, imaginary. "It's misleading to compare one year to another year," says Stoughton. "2013 was the safest year for police officers, ever," as in, "the safest year in recorded history." The number of police deaths last year was on par with 2012 and significantly lower than in 2011. We're now on track to have 35 felonious police deaths this year, which would be the second-lowest number in decades after 2013, writes Radley Balko at the Washington Post. The number of officers murdered has dropped by 50% compared to the 1970s, Stoughton says, and while things like improved protective gear play a role in that, assaults on officers are also down. More ambush killings, like the one in Houston, may be occurring, but "the increase from five to eight, or five to 10" over 67 million police-citizen interactions every year, "statistically, it doesn't look significant," Stoughton says.