In The Line of Duty

     I was startled last week when I read a statistic that there had been four Alabama police officers killed in the line of duty last year. I struggled to remember even one!

     When I looked it up, it became clear that these were not officers shot, stabbed, or beaten and killed by criminals. And I, of all people, should have suspected that. My own grandfather was "killed in the line of duty" just months after my father was born, and he wasn't shot or otherwise attacked by bad guys either. He was in a police truck that ran off the road, and he died from his injuries.

Here's how the official National Police Memorial page defines "in the line of duty":  

The term "killed in the line of duty" means a law enforcement officer has died as a direct and proximate result of a personal injury sustained in the line of duty. This includes victim law enforcement officers who, while in an off-duty capacity, act in response to a law violation. It also includes victim law enforcement officers who, while in an off-duty capacity, are en route to or from a specific emergency or responding to a particular request for assistance; or the officer is, as required or authorized by law or condition of employment, driving his or her employer's vehicle to or from work; or when the officer is, as required by law or condition of employment, driving his or her own personal vehicle at work and is killed while en route to or from work.
Not included under this definition are deaths attributed to natural causes, except when the medical condition arises out of physical exertion, while on duty, that is required by law or condition of employment including, but not limited to, the following:

1. running or other types of exercise being performed as part of training programs administered by the employing agency;
2. fitness tests administered by the employing agency;
3. lifting of heavy objects; or
4. a specific stressful response to a violation of law or an emergency situation causing an officer's death immediately or within 24 hours of violation or emergency situation, or causing his or her death during a continuous period of hospitalization immediately following the specific response to the specific stressful response to the violation of law or emergency situation.

Stressful responses include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. a physical struggle with a suspected or convicted criminal;
2. performing a search and rescue mission that requires rigorous physical activity;
3. performing or assisting with emergency medical treatment;
4. responding to a violation of the law or emergency situation that involves a serious injury or death; or
5. a situation that requires either a high speed response or pursuit on foot or in a vehicle.

Also not included under this definition are deaths attributed to voluntary alcohol or controlled substance abuse, deaths caused by the intentional misconduct of the officer, deaths caused by the officer's intention to bring about his or her own death and deaths attributed to an officer performing his or her duty in a grossly negligent manner at time of death.

Two of the four "in the line of duty" deaths in Alabama involved officers who died of heart attacks, the other two because of highway accidents.