'Alarming trend:' Violence up against law enforcement officers in Asheville, across nation - WLOS
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — According to a recently released FBI report, 60,105 law enforcement officers were assaulted on the job in 2020. That's 4,071 more than the 56,034 assaults reported in 2019 -- a 7.2% increase.
Asheville Police Chief David Zack said it's a trend we're seeing locally, too.
"The hostility that we've seen is unprecedented in my career," Zack said.
So far this year, 47 APD officers have been assaulted. In 2020, 65 were assaulted; in 2019, 62 officers were assaulted. In 2017, 46 officers were assaulted, and in 2016, 34 were assaulted. Chief Zack said the increase in assaults and overall hostility in recent years is unlike anything he's witnessed before in his 35 years of service.
"You're constantly concerned about their wellbeing. Not only their physical wellbeing but their mental health as well," Zack said.
Zack said APD has embedded clinicians within their department that help counsel officers following traumatic incidents.
APD Chief Deputy of Operations Mike Yelton is in charge of investigating incidents involving use of force against officers. He said he's been extra busy in recent years.
"We have seen a much greater prevalence of people using physical force against our officers," Yelton said.
He said that's why they emphasize the importance of training, particularly in de-escalation tactics. But oftentimes, he said there's no indication the encounter could turn violent.
"In a lot of cases, it's a very benign contact with the public," Yelton said.
He recounted two incidents this year -- one in which an officer was headbutted.
"One individual had assaulted officers on two separate occasions within days of each other," Yelton said.
He said luckily, most of the assaults aren't severe. But sometimes, the violence can force officers onto the sidelines.
Detective Nathan Dietiker was out of work for many months following the assault he experienced on the job in late 2018. He was assisting in the pursuit of a suspect who had fled in his vehicle from a felony arrest. He said the suspect crashed into his car, head-on.
"It just completely destroyed my ankle on my right foot. I've had two surgeries, and the second one was an ankle replacement. So I have a fake ankle I'm walking around with," Dietiker said.
Now, he mostly works from his desk as a result.
"I can't come in and work with the same people that I was working with before and go out and help people in the way that I like to help people," Deitiker said. "It was my passion to be working here, out on the road and that's something I'm not able to do anymore, it's pretty crushing."
His colleague, Captain Mike Lamb, experienced a traumatic and life-changing day of his own on May 11, 2018. He was called to a motel, where a man with mental health and addiction issues was destroying property and screaming, scaring other guests. He said he wouldn't leave his motel room.
"We attempted to deescalate him, negotiate with him with trained investigators," Lamb said.
"When I got to the back door, it was slightly ajar so I pulled on it, and when I did, unprovoked, he came out of the hotel room, jumped on me, cut me several times with a box cutter," Lamb said.
Lamb ended up shooting his firearm at the man in defense.
"If I had not used my firearm that day, he definitely would've taken my life," Lamb said. "Had the cut been just an inch lower on my neck, there's a good chance I would've either had brain damage from the blood loss or I would've died."
Luckily, he says both he and the man who attacked him lived. But due to his injuries and the required state investigation into the officer-involved shooting, he was unable to return to work in the field for several months. More traumatizing, though, was the mental and emotional toll it took on him, his family and his friends.
Chief Deputy Yelton said when a trained and experienced officer is sidelined due to an assault, it's a big loss in many ways.
"There is a significant loss of financial investment, it takes a lot of time, a lot of money, to train and equip police officers, and if you have an experienced officer who is in the prime of their career and then an injury leaves them unable to perform their full duties, there is a loss. There's an operational cost, we lose a police officer on the street and then we lose a financial investment, as well," Yelton said.
Right now, APD can't really afford to have any officers out, as it continues to grapple with staffing issues.
"I mean there's a number of things that are affecting retention and recruitment, but certainly everybody can read the paper and everybody can see what's happening and again, there's a lot of stories, a lot of literature out there about violence against police officers. So, certainly, we're trying to attract people to a profession and certainly the danger of the profession is higher than it's ever been, so of course that's going to have an effect," Zack said.
The rise in violence against officers is happening at a time when backup may not be so quick to come, Zack adds.
"It all goes back to training and morale and so forth. We're constantly trying to maintain a level of morale but we're also reminding our officers, it's well documented here that we are down staff. So, we're advising them that it's going to take longer for backup and cover to reach you to not put yourself at an unnecessary risk and to just be vigilant," Zack said.
He said the importance of this job remains strong as ever, though, and that's what he stresses to potential recruits.
"It's still about service. It's still about the reward that comes with serving your community. So, you try to emphasize that, that you have the opportunity to make a difference," Zack said.
source: https://wlos.com/news/local/alarming-trend-violence-up-against-law-enforcement-officers-in-asheville-across-nation
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