By any measure, law enforcement officers have one of the most dangerous jobs there is. Nationally, 134 police and sheriff’s patrol officers were killed on the job in 2010. Nonfatal injuries are also very common.
In Pennsylvania, a vivid reminder of the potential for workplace injury or death came on
Father’s Day, when a man armed with a rifle engaged in a 10-hour standoff with police in Doylestown.
The man, Richard Klementovich, was a 42-year-old police officer and former soldier from Clifton, New Jersey. He had apparently become distraught about a dispute with his estranged wife. According to news reports, Klementovich called police to tell them about the dispute, and then held them off with a rifle when they arrived.
The bullets fired by Klementovich damaged two police vehicles. After a ricochet of one of the rounds, shrapnel from a bullet hit one police officer in the face, resulting in minor injuries.
This occurred about 2 p.m. Local police and the Pennsylvania State Police waited him out. Ten hours later, Klementovich voluntarily surrendered to authorities. This came after several hours of communication between Klementovich and a negotiator from a special response team from Bucks County.
Thankfully, the standoff did not result in serious injury or death. But the statistics say that it easily could have. Law enforcement officers put their lives on the line every time they go to work. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, patrol officers have the second-highest nonfatal injury rate of any job sector.
Source: “Clifton cop who shot at Pa. police is charged with more than 80 counts of assault, attempted homicide,” Newark Star-Ledger, James Queally, 6-18-12