2022 ‘One of the Most Dangerous Years’ for Police Amid Nationwide Crime Spike, Says Law Enforcement Group

Ben WilsonDecember 21, 2022

Fraternal Order of Police president Patrick Yoes blames Democratic policies for crime surge

A police funeral / Getty Images Ben Wilson • December 21, 2022 5:00 pm

Twenty-twenty-two was “one of the most dangerous years for law enforcement in recent history,” the largest police advocacy group in the country said Wednesday amid a nationwide crime surge in Democratic-run cities.

“Last year we saw more officers shot in the line of duty than any other since the National Fraternal Order of Police began recording this data in late 2015,” group president Patrick Yoes said in a statement. “It is unlike anything I’ve seen in my 36 years of law enforcement.”

Three-hundred-twenty-three police officers were shot and 60 killed from gunfire this year as of Dec. 19, according to a report from the Fraternal Order of Police, which counts more than 350,000 police officers as members. That’s a 13 percent increase from this time in 2019 and the highest number of shootings since the group first tracked the data in 2015.

The group’s statement comes as so-called progressive district attorneys across the country push for lax prosecution that often puts violent criminals back on the street. In Virginia, for example, a Soros-funded Democratic prosecutor is being sued for letting a child rapist walk free. Another Soros-backed Democratic prosecutor, Larry Krasner in Philadelphia, oversaw 500 murders this year, bringing the murder rate to levels not seen since 1990. He has repeatedly failed to prosecute violent criminals.

Yoes pointed to Democratic policies, such as failing to “prosecute violent offenders” and “releasing repeat offenders arrested for crimes who show a propensity for escalation of violence,” as causes for the crime spike.

“Law-abiding citizens saw the real-life consequences of what happens when elected officials embrace pro-criminal, revolving-door policies and make decisions that put the interests of violent offenders ahead of public safety,” he said.