It’s a periscope! It’s an elbow macaroni! Nope, it’s the RE, HTC’s $200 handheld camera. Sure, it’s super fun and really easy to hold, but if pro-level action shots are what you’re after, this noodle-shaped shooter isn’t for you. That’s not all we…
If a new Indiegogo project has its way, you could soon be waving goodbye to that old, beloved mouse of yours. Meet Flow, a small gadget that pairs with your desktop or laptop and can be programmed with shortcuts to your most frequently used actions….
iCloud is Apple’s cloud storage service, but have you felt that perhaps it’s a bit lacking when compared to other cloud storage services out there? After all Apple should have the slight advantage, especially since it can sync photos and contacts a lot more seamlessly between iOS devices, right?
Well as it turns out, organizational issues could be the reason why iCloud isn’t as advanced as it could and should be. This is according to a report from The Information (paywall; via AppleInsider) where it seems that a lack of a centralized cloud infrastructure team is slowing down Apple’s efforts at developing iCloud’s services.
This might also explain why iCloud Photo Library is a beta feature, despite it being announced alongside iOS 8 during WWDC 2014. In fact the feature was delayed when iOS 8 was released and only made its way (as a beta) in iOS 8.1. So unlike OS X or iOS where there are teams dedicated to developing the software, the same cannot be said for iCloud.
However one person close to the company has mentioned that Apple has recently taken some steps to building common cloud technology, but even then they are still moving slowly due to isolated teams and a lack of a centralized one, but hopefully this is something Apple will address in the near future. In the meantime it looks like customers and users will just have to remain patient.
iCloud Development Reportedly Hampered By Organizational Issues , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
When Apple released the iPhone 5, we can only imagine the rush of users who went to the iTunes App Store to check out apps that have been optimized for its larger display, and to check for apps that have been updated to match the iPhone 5’s 4-inch display. So with the release of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus with its 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch displays respectively, we can only imagine that rush would be bigger than ever.
Well as it turns out we were right. According to a report to analytics firm Fiksu, it seems that the amount of apps downloaded in the wake of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus’ release managed to break previous records. It was recorded that in October, the iTunes App Store saw a whopping download of around 7.8 million daily downloads.
Yes, you read that right, 7.8 million downloads day, not in the month, but per day! These are based on the top 200 apps in the iTunes App Store, so we can only imagine that number could be higher if all apps in the iTunes App Store were to be taken into account. According to Fiksu, they are attributing the surge in downloads to the loyalty that Apple customers have to the brand.
They also expect this trend to continue in the holiday season as users will most likely receive an iTunes gift card or so as a present from friends/family/co-workers, and so on, but what say you? Did you also rush to download and check out new apps to see how it would handle on your iPhone 6 or 6 Plus’ display?
iPhone 6 And 6 Plus Launch Sees Surge In App Downloads , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
As a management consultant, I get asked for advice all the time on a wide range of topics: How can I best lead a high stakes meeting? How do I handle a difficult conversation? How do I more effectively manage a strategic transition at our company? (Note: These are smart people asking smart questions.) Occasionally the subject will veer into personal territory, with many people asking questions about how to deal with their children, partner or friends differently. What I’ve noticed recently is that more and more I’ve been giving everyone the same advice. Because in truth, there is only ONE answer: Be Kind. Be Present. Be Clear. Your job – always, forever, and in every situation is simply to be kind, present, and clear.
This insight has only revealed itself after twenty years in this business of paying close attention to the habits of extraordinary leaders, multiple hours spent in rigorous self-examination, and countless workshops on personal and leadership effectiveness. My discovery is that when I was kind, present and clear, I took pride in how I did my job – regardless of the outcome. And the leaders I’ve worked with who are kind, present and clear always have the best outcomes in the long run.
This is easier to say, and harder to do, so let me offer some thoughts on how…
How to be Kind. This should be the easiest to accomplish – but it’s important to remember that kindness is a two-way street. It’s not enough to only express compassion for others; you must also practice it with yourself. Just slow down to notice in a given situation where you are feeling anxiety, how unkind or even violent your internal dialogue is with you. Until this internal dialogue is full of forgiveness, it will be impossible to treat others kindly. When we make this shift to become kind with ourselves, we become that much more likely to treat everyone else (colleagues, competitors, and even the guy who cuts us off on the drive home) more gently, respectfully and with a sense of decency. A good rule to help you be kind with others is to presume innocence. While people do all manner of things that they could be criticized for, they rarely act with malice or negative intent, but rather out of unconsciousness.
How to be Present. This one may be a little harder to implement, if only because we are loaded up – and weighed down – with so many distractions today. From cell phones to computers to overly chatty colleagues, there is no shortage of obstacles standing between us and our ability to remain truly mindful and connected in each and every moment. For me, being present means being 100 percent invested in, and available for, what is actually happening right now, not what you’re afraid might happen tomorrow, or reacting to what did happen yesterday. The key to staying present is to use all of your five senses with absolute intent in the moment. When your brain is occupied taking in all of the data available through the senses, it is less likely to drift into negative or fear-based future and past wanderings that distract from the moment. Perhaps most importantly, through that kind of fierce presence, you actually have access to all of the data that’s available at any given moment and are therefore more likely to have high-quality insights and make high-quality decisions.
How to be Clear. Clarity is the most important element of business leadership, and perhaps also the most challenging to achieve. Being clear means being truthful, concise and communicating exactly what you believe – with specificity and openness. One reason being clear can be hard for senior executives is that we are often hedging on multiple dimensions at the same time and are unclear about exactly what we want to say and exactly what we want people to do or understand. Sometimes we think clarity will hurt or scare people. But of course we only cause greater pain when we hesitate or try and cushion the projected blow by giving soft, muddy instructions. Or hazy outlines of what we really mean. On the flip side, when presented with an unclear task, the people we lead may attempt to figure it out as they go along rather than admit they don’t fully grasp the assignment. The result? Lack of clarity causes a chain of pain in an organization from top to bottom. When we respect people enough to be clear with them – whether assigning a difficult task, or offering critical feedback – we’re not only giving them a better chance to succeed, we’re also demonstrating our faith and confidence that they can handle the task (or feedback) at hand. And what do you think happens to an employee’s job performance when they feel their bosses trust them enough to tell them the truth?
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In my experience, the three ingredients above are equally necessary for doing your job well. Just as sugar, flour and eggs do not make a cake on their own, so kindness, presence, and clarity must be blended and baked together to experience maximum flavor… and benefit. Being kind alone may lead to a nice dialogue, but not one that inspires action. Likewise, being clear without kindness can feel harsh and disruptive.
I have also found that there is a natural flow and symbiosis between the three ingredients. When we treat people kindly, we know intuitively that it is more compassionate to remain present for them (and with them); and sure enough, without needing to force it or think about it, the natural outcome of being kind and present with others is clarity.
‘Kind, Present, and Clear’ isn’t just a tool or a method; it’s a mantra to live by – with your boss, kids, a difficult employee, or with yourself. That’s why being kind, present, and clear will always be your only job.
Hundreds of students and community members in Oklahoma demonstrated outside of a local high school Monday morning to protest the school’s handling of conflicts among students in the wake of several rape allegations.
According to local outlet The Oklahoman, there were up to 1,000 students rallying outside Norman High School, with some leaving class to attend the protest and others skipping school altogether. The student group that organized the event, YES ALL Daughters, led the group in chants, says the outlet.
Organizers with #YESALLDAUGHTERS say the lives of these 3 girls have been put on hold. @OKCFOX #LiveOnOKCFOX pic.twitter.com/zuKRH3Godi
— Danielle Dunn (@DanielleDunnOKC) November 24, 2014
Scroll down for more photos from the protest.
The event was organized in response to the treatment of multiple teenage girls who say they were raped by the same classmate. While the alleged rapist has been suspended from school for the rest of the year as police investigate the claims, students are saying that administrators failed to act when other classmates bullied the victims, reports local outlet KOKH-TV.
The victims have since voluntarily left the school, reports Jezebel. In the Jezebel report, one victim says she was suspended after she swung her book bag at a bully who taunted her.
“There is an active investigation, yes,” Detective Ron Collett of the Norman Police Department told Jezebel. “There is one suspect and multiple victims.”
In solidarity with the victims, a group of students organized the protest under the group name YES ALL Daughters. The group has also released a set of demands for the school district, including that the school better handle instances of bullying and provide more resources for victims of sexual assault.
Specifically, the demands include that the “school must fully accommodate the educational needs of the victims and take all necessary steps to ensure the victims feel welcome and safe at all times on school grounds” and that the “school shall prioritize the immediate implementation of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and bullying prevention education for students and faculty,” says KOKH-TV.
“They’re struggling, they’re having a really tough time,” said a student organizer of the protest Danielle Brown of the victims, to KOKH-TV. “They want to come to school and they can’t.”
In preparation for the protest, Norman High School principal Scott Beck sent a letter home to parents last week. In the letter, Beck said that he respects students’ decision to protest peacefully, according to local outlet the Norman Transcript. The letter also stated that the school took the “strongest disciplinary action against the alleged assailant permitted by Oklahoma law.”
The letter also addressed rumors about the school’s treatment of the victims.
“Despite what rumors on social media may indicate, we have not — and would never — discipline a victim for being a victim,” Beck’s letter said, according to the outlet.
In a statement provided to HuffPost, the district superintendent Dr. Joe Siano commented on the protest.
“We applaud Norman High students for conducting themselves in a mature, respectful manner today,” says the statement. “We continue to be very concerned about victims of sexual assault and are committed to doing what we can to support them and ensuring our schools provide a safe, secure and supportive environment for our students.”
In a fact sheet from the district, it is also noted that “the district received one report of bullying related to the above incidents and immediately responded to that incident.”
Below are pictures of the protest that took place Monday.
Students walking out of class at Norman HS. #YesAllDaughters pic.twitter.com/yLViV5PfDz
— Rachel Calderon (@RachelTRAFFIC) November 24, 2014
Hundreds of students walking out of Norman High to join the protests #YesAllDaughters @OKCFOX pic.twitter.com/Cwoq2604dk
— Tom George (@TheTomGeorge) November 24, 2014
Hundreds of people at Norman protest standing up against Bullying #YESALLDAUGHTERS pic.twitter.com/cflGNzCK8J
— Ashley Kringen (@Ashleykringen) November 24, 2014
Students are now cheering “Transfer is not the answer.” @OKCFOX #YesAllDaughters pic.twitter.com/WzDZG0R9M4
— Danielle Dunn (@DanielleDunnOKC) November 24, 2014
Live from Norman. We want justice and we want it now. #YesAllDaughters #NormanHighSchool #Oklahoma pic.twitter.com/CibvvvKVIP
— Space Boy (@dank_noodles) November 24, 2014
On Christmas Day 1994, the veteran singer/songwriter Fred Goodman met his future wife Chris’s extended family. When caroling time arrived, Fred, the only Jew in a houseful of Catholics, sat at the piano and led the guests through classic after classic, including all the verses — in Latin — of “Adeste Fidelis” — the song you and I more likely know as “O Come All Ye Faithful.”
Fred at Home Restaurant, 1973
Fred was born in Wilmington, DE in 1946. After graduating with a BA in English from the University of Delaware in ’68, he moved to Manhattan, where his first published song, “Fill My Soul,” was produced by Koppelman-Rubin (of Lovin’ Spoonful/Turtles fame) and recorded by Tommy James and the Shondells. The record came “this close” to being the follow-up to the group’s No. 1 smash, “Mony Mony” and served as Fred’s introduction to show-biz heartbreak.
“This close” doesn’t pay the rent, so Goodman took a job at the trade magazine Record World, where he held a variety of writing and editing positions for three years. Full disclosure: At Record World, Fred was my boss, then we were colleagues, and then I was his boss. We’ve been friends ever since. During that time, his song “Didn’t It Look So Easy” was a moderate R&B hit for the Five Stairsteps, the follow-up to their chestnut, “O-o-h Child.” And the instrumental “Esperanto,” by the Grand Piano Company, made the MOR charts and became a dance club staple in Northern England.
After leaving Record World to devote more time to songwriting, Fred signed with Steve Popovich’s Cleveland Entertainment, where he scored with Ellen Foley’s, “We Belong to the Night,” an international hit that went No. 1 in the Benelux countries. More than 30 years later, Dutch star Maaike performed it on her country’s edition of “X Factor,” and the recorded version went to No. 3 in Holland. Fred’s songs have been covered by such other artists as the Iron City Houserockers, Gary Private, Sherri London, and Suzi Dietz.
Fred continued to ply his editorial trade at the music trades, contributing to Hits (whose editor/co-owner Lenny Beer is another erstwhile Record World colleague) and putting in several years as the editor at Cash Box, where he toiled for its monumentally cranky owner George Albert, the man who insisted that he “started” everyone and everything in the music industry. Fred recalls, “One day, I asked George if he planned to attend the Palm Springs Film Festival, since he had a home there. He asked me what it was, and when I told him that it was sort of a stateside version of the Cannes Film Festival, he exclaimed, ‘Cannes! I started that!'”
In recent years, in addition to serving as managing editor of yet another trade, Pro Sound News, Fred has written, produced and recorded two full-scale albums on his own label, Froy Records. “Kvetch 22,” released in 2006 under the name Freddy & The Froy Boys, was a collection of comic pop tunes with zany lyrics, a sort of “Weird Al…lan Sherman.” Three years later, Fred released “The Last Days of Rock ‘n’ Roll” by Fred and the Fredettes, a name he revived from his oldies sing along group that performed regularly at Home Restaurant on Manhattan’s Upper East Side during the 1970s. (Regular Fredettes included the beautiful May Pang.)
Fred continues to write and record new material, and may partner up again with Ellen Foley. He’s toying with the title for the next Froy Boys LP — “Kvetch 23”? “Kvetcher in the Rye”? “Kvetcher in the Wry”?
Fred’s parallel career as a gifted parodist includes these gems:
“Nude Guys” (“Blue Skies”)
I went to a film last Saturday night
I knew right away something wasn’t quite right
An all-male cast was up on the screen
And it wasn’t “Platoon,” if you know what I mean
There were nude guys smiling at me
Nothing but nude guys did I see
No girls, nary a one
Nothing but nude guys having fun
“Carrots and Walnuts” (“I Am the Walrus”)
I’m eating eggplant, she’s eating eggplant
Carrots and walnuts
Tofu for two!
Fred and Yoko Ono, 1973
“Then He Brissed Me” (“Then He Kissed Me”)
When I was 8 days old, my parents threw a party for me
They invited their friends and all of the family
The food was good, the drinks were nice
I was having the best time of my life
But suddenly the rabbi took a knife
And then he brissed me
They say great songwriters write about what they know best. Of course, that didn’t stop Irving Berlin, a Jew, from conjuring the most famous Christmas carol this side of “Adeste Fidelis.” In that spirit, Fred, based on a discovery he made about a certain white-bearded Christmas icon, offers this number to add spice to holiday playlists…
While Thanksgiving purports to be a day when family and friends gather to break bread and celebrate the bounty of the harvest and the miracle of life, today, a lot of things get in the way of having a meaningful gathering: technological distractions, the idea of what a family should be as set by movies and TV, the convenience of packaged food and increasingly polarized political views creating arguments.
We all know that uncle who says bizarre inappropriate things in front of the little ones or that grandma who pinches your cheek and asks you [when you’re getting married, having kids, getting a real job, etc.]. Many of us experience uncomfortable moments of tension either from resurfaced past hurts, or from things on which we don’t see eye-to-eye.
Thomas Moore says in Care of the Soul,
No family is perfect. It has an elaborate history and ancestry and a network of unpredictable personalities — grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles. Its stories tell of happy times and tragedies. It has moments of pride and skeletons in its closets. It has its professed values and its carefully constructed image, as well as its secret transgressions and follies. But recovery of soul begins when we take to heart our own family fate and find in it the raw material for our own soul work.
We’re all aching for a little soul work in this digital era. The family dinner table provides the perfect opportunity to work through matters of the heart: to struggle a little to connect but to grow in the process. Set the intention to act with love and kindness to each and every family or friend at your table. Here are 10 ideas to push yourself to have an even more meaningful and fulfilling Thanksgiving this year. Take what is useful and leave the rest.
1. Get hands-on about sharing.
Make a point to give to a food donation center and get the whole family involved. Every year growing up, the day before Thanksgiving, my mom used to take our family to volunteer serving food to those in need. It was a hands-on family affair, not merely a hit-and-run canned food drop-off. While sitting around the table, acknowledge the ways in which you’ve given to those in need so that the importance is verbalized for everyone. Being mindful that there are those who have less helps cultivate kindness and gratitude. As an added health bonus, according to The Greater Good Science Center, a
2006 study by Rachel Piferi of Johns Hopkins University and Kathleen Lawler of the University of Tennessee [showed] that people who provided social support to others had lower blood pressure than participants who didn’t, suggesting a direct physiological benefit to those who give of themselves.
2. Make the food together, from scratch.
When you get down to it, food is the centerpiece of this holiday. Food author Michael Pollan says,
The decline of everyday home cooking doesn’t only damage the health of our bodies and our land but also our families, our communities, and our sense of how our eating connects us to the world. Our growing distance from any direct, physical engagement with the processes by which the raw stuff of nature gets transformed into a cooked meal is changing our understanding of what food is.
It’s easier to buy a pre-made pumpkin pie, but making food from scratch helps you feel connected to the natural process that creates life — the exact feeling that help you feel closer to your family. Ask your parents or kids if they can come over early and help chop the carrots and celery for the stuffing.
3. No cell phones allowed.
Pick a set time to take a group family photo then put them away (or turn them off.) It’s difficult to fully listen to your cousin or nephew tell you about his sports victory or drama award if your phone is buzzing in your pocket with notifications that can wait. No one needs to check email or Facebook on Thanksgiving. This is a day for paying attention to family. It also sets a good example for young ones to see attentive, cell phone-free adults. They’ve never known a world without them but you certainly have. Help them see how the Thanksgivings of your childhood were spent distraction free.
4. Be intentionally loving.
Set your intention before arriving at grandma’s house: Today I speak only words of love. Spiritual teacher Deepak Chopra says, “Intention is the starting point of every dream. It is the creative power that fulfills all of our needs.” To prevent yourself from being on the defense when asked when about your relationships and work life (why haven’t you done x yet?!), make a game plan ahead of time to play kind conversational offense. Focus on what you admire and appreciate about your family members and let them know: “Mom, I have always admired how much integrity you bring into your work. Thank you for teaching that to me. I’m grateful to have received that gift from you.” Up the ante by recognizing the things in others that you know they want to be seen for but maybe aren’t often recognized. Everyone loves to be seen as they see themselves.
5. Don’t judge “good or bad.”
While you’re talking to grandpa over a mug of eggnog about immigration reform or the recent midterm elections, try just listening to his perspective without placing a label on it of “good or bad,” “agree or disagree.” Smile, nod, and even say, “tell me more.” Try to focus just on listening and being present. Arguing is not going to change his mind or reverse policy so let go of your differences for at least this one day. Listening to someone and giving them your full attention is one of the greatest gifts you can give.
6. Say grace.
This habit has gone by the wayside in modern secular society but Thanksgiving is at least one day a year when, before anyone touches their food, someone can lead the family in a prayer of gratitude for the abundance on the table. The prayer doesn’t have to start with “Our father, who art in heaven.” In MJ Ryan’s A Grateful Heart: Daily Blessings for the Evening Meal from the Buddha to the Beatles, you can find prayers of every flavor. Gratitude is something we all can share, regardless of our religious affiliation. Go around the table and ask everyone to share at least one thing for which they’re grateful.
7. Play hot seat.
Go around the table and, focusing on one person at a time (the person in the hot seat), have each guest name one good quality that comes to mind describing the one in the hot seat. Words like “caring,” “intelligent” or “strong” are examples. Keep it positive! You can also try elaborating on that quality, for example: “Sarah, that time that you kept mom company in the hospital made me realize what an amazing caregiver you are.”
8. Serve each other.
Try making each other’s plates instead of your own. See how well you can care for the needs of others. “I know that sweet potatoes are your favorite so I’m making sure you get extra” or “I know you don’t like gravy so that is not going on your plate.” Noticing what someone likes and then giving them that exact thing is one of the highest forms of love.
9. Make toasts.
Clink your glass often in praise of others. Toast the chefs and hosts, generously complimenting them, even if the turkey is a bit dry and the green beans are overcooked. You will enjoy the food and company more if you prime yourself for appreciative thoughts by voicing them loudly and often.
10. Take a walk in nature together.
While waiting for the turkey to reach that perfect golden brown, grab a relative and head out for a walk. Where I grew up, the beach was always just a few blocks away. If you have a short trail in the woods nearby, it can be nice to get some quality time in nature to instill reverence for life. If you live in suburbia or an urban concrete jungle, just walk to a park and back. This can also be a great post-feast activity serving to burn off some of those second-slice-of-pie calories and fight off the sleepy tryptophan from the Turkey.
This post originally appeared on Kindness Blog.
Alison Cebulla is a life, health, and business coach who lives in New York, NY. She started her devotion to intentionally kind living in 2012 after a theft got her thinking about the nature of karma. Alison is leading a 30-day kindness challenge that starts December 1, 2014. It is free, online, and open to the public. Sign up here.
NEW YORK — With a brass band accompanying chants of “Your burgers might be square, but your food ain’t fair,” and “Wendy’s sucks, give up some bucks,” about 200 people marched in front of two Wendy’s restaurants in Manhattan this past Saturday, demanding the company pay 1 cent more per pound of tomatoes in order to boost farmworkers’ wages.
The protest, which coalesced outside a Wendy’s on 14th Street before moving south to another Wendy’s in the East Village, marked the latest move in a long-running campaign by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, an organization that advocates on behalf of Florida farmworkers, to press Wendy’s to join the CIW’s “Fair Food Program.” Companies that join the program agree to pay the extra penny per pound of tomatoes, as well as to abide by a code of conduct designed to rein in abuses like sexual harassment and forced labor.
In 2005, Taco Bell became the first major company to join the Fair Food Program. It was followed by other corporate giants like McDonald’s, Burger King and Whole Foods.
But Wendy’s has refused to join the coalition.
“They’re exploiting farmworkers, when it’s because of them that we have food on our plates,” one of the protesters, Lyzbeth Paredes, 20, told The Huffington Post. “Consumers have a lot more power than they think.”
Some protesters carried signs showing tomatoes emblazoned with the word “Justice.” Others waved yellow flags that read “New day for farmworkers.”
The Wendy’s corporate office declined to comment on the protest or the farmworkers’ demands.
Gerardo Reyes Chavez, 37, first began working in the tomato fields of Southern Florida in about 2000, he said. He joined the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, which takes its name from a town in the region, after a stint laboring in the state’s orange groves.
“Wendy’s, like many other corporations, are profiting from the artificially low prices that they push on workers,” Reyes Chavez told HuffPost. “We don’t understand why Wendy’s chooses to perpetuate these problems when it would only cost them a penny more per pound [of tomatoes].”
The protest came one day after the New York premiere of “Food Chains,” a documentary co-produced by actress Eva Longoria and journalist Eric Schlosser that depicts the CIW’s efforts to boost wages and guarantee rights for Florida farmworkers. The film will run in New York for the rest of the week.
Tomato pickers in Florida must pick at least 480 pounds of the fruit per hour, according to a New York Times review of the film.
Priscilla Gonzalez, 23, passed the demonstration at the Wendy’s on Lafayette Street while on her lunch break from a nearby clothing retailer. After buying a meal there, she told HuffPost she hoped the farmworkers would win the concession.
“For me, I’m on my lunch break and this is the closest thing and it’s the cheapest,” said Gonzalez. “But I hope they get it.”
A total of 76 law enforcement officers died in the line of duty in 2013, the FBI reported Monday. Of those, 49 died in accidents and 27 were killed as a result of felonious acts — the lowest such figure in more than 50 years of FBI reporting, dating back to at least 1961.
The 27 deaths of officers as a result of criminal acts in 2013 were a significant reduction from 2012, when 49 officers were feloniously killed, as well as from 2011, when 72 officers were killed by suspects. In 2009, 48 officers were killed by suspects. In 2004, 57 were slain, according to the FBI.
Following the Ferguson, Missouri, killing of Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old, by Officer Darren Wilson in August, law enforcement advocates touted the regular and often life-threatening dangers officers face on the job. But the Bureau of Labor Statistics list of the 10 most-dangerous professions doesn’t include law enforcement officer. The BLS said law enforcement accounted for 2 percent of total U.S. fatal on-the-job injuries in 2013, with 31 percent of those injuries caused by homicide.
Other studies on the deaths of officers in the line of duty also showed police were far less likely to be killed in 2013 than they had been in decades. According to a count by the Officer Down Memorial Page, which collects data on line-of-duty incidents, there were far fewer deaths last year than in more than 40 years.
A 2013 tally by the National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund showed 100 officers died in the line of duty last year, the fewest since 1944. Traffic-related fatalities were the leading cause of officer deaths in 2013. The report found that “firearms-related fatalities reached a 126-year low … with 31 officers shot and killed, the lowest since 1887 when 27 officers were shot and killed.”
The FBI data from 2013 said 26 officers were killed by firearms. The discrepancy is likely because the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports on Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted relies on incident reports from police agencies. The Officer Down Memorial Page and the National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund are independent non-profit organizations that conduct their own counts. National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund data on police fatalities in 2014 shows total police fatalities are up this year from last, though details aren’t yet tallied.
While reports by the FBI and other groups give a good idea of how many officers are killed in the line of duty each year, the number of people killed by officers is far less certain. The unrest in Ferguson reminded the nation that there is no federal database or reporting standard to track of the number of justifiable homicides — or even total people killed — by police each year.
Activists have tried to mount independent campaigns to track these so-called officer-involved killings, but so far have been unable to create anything resembling a comprehensive list. Statewide efforts have seen slightly more success. In Utah, for example, the Salt Lake City Tribune recently reported that police in the state were the second-leading cause of homicide from 2010 to October 2014. Over that period, officers were responsible for more of the state’s homicides than gang members, drug dealers or child abusers.
Many law enforcement agencies do report “justifiable homicides” to the FBI. A recently released report on these incidents in 2013 found that officers fatally shot 461 felony suspects last year, the most in two decades. Some experts have cautioned that this offers a very incomplete picture of the total number of civilians who die at the hands of police.
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