On Duty Police Officer Deaths Across, 1962-2023 (version 3.0)

Abstract

Five on duty police officers across Canada died in 2022, including Toronto Police Service Constable Andrew Hong (September 12), South Simcoe Police Service constables Morgan Russell and Devon Northrup (October 12), Burnaby Royal Canadian Mounted Police Constable Shaelyn Yang (October 18), and Ontario Provincial Police Constable Grzegorz Pierzchala (December 27). In response, a number of police force leaders and police association representatives claimed that the number of these deaths was “unprecedented”. The Criminalization and Punishment Education Project (CPEP) examined whether these claims were true. In examining the data available online, CPEP published the first version of this resource in January 2023, which demonstrated that there had been several other years over the past six decades where more police officers had died while on duty. CPEP then investigated the circumstances of on duty police officer deaths to examine how many of these incidents where the result of intentional harmful acts and released the second version of this resource in February 2023, which found that the number of deaths stemming from violent acts committed against police officers was also not unprecedented. Unfortunately, so far in 2023 four more police officers – Edmonton Police Service Constable Travis Jordan and Constable Brett Ryan (March 16), Sûreté du Québec Sergeant Maureen Breau (March 27), and Ontario Provincial Police Sergeant Eric Mueller (May 11) – were killed as a result of intentional harmful acts, while another – Strathcona County Royal Canadian Mounted Police Constable Harvinder Singh Dhami (April 10) – died in a motor vehicle incident. This updated resource examines on duty police officer deaths across Canada from 1962 to 2023.