What are the odds of being a police officer?

Answer 1

Not especially high. in 2009, 127 law enforcement officers died in the line of duty in the United States, but only 57 were murdered. The remainder died in vehicle and aircraft accidents, of heart attacks or job-related illnesses, or by other non-criminal means.

The last count I made of the number of law enforcement officers in the U.S. came to about 814,000. Using that number, there was a 0.007% probability that an officer in 2009 would be murdered.

This doesn't change a lot from year to year. In 2008, 58 officers were killed feloniously, so the probability would change to 0.0071%.

Roughly half of all officer fatalities are attributed to traffic accidents, and half of those in single-vehicle accidents, usually when officers are driving fast or under hazardous conditions to respond to a call.

Answer 2

There are certain requirements for becoming a police officer, which you would have to meet. A police officer must be strong and healthy enough to engage in some degree of violence if necessary (but would not have to be a lethal fighting machine), and must also be intelligent enough to be able to learn the somewhat complicated set of laws that need to be enforced by the police (but does not have to be a genius). So, not everybody is qualified, but it's not tremendously difficult to qualify; if you are interested in that line of work, your chances are good.