Are Police Safe? Cleveland Officer Killed In Line Of Duty Is Latest Death In Deadly Year Of Violence For Law Enforcement

A Cleveland police officer was killed Tuesday in a hit and run crash while directing traffic on a highway. The officer, who was not immediately named, was taken to a local hospital after the driver sped off, police said.

The officer was directing traffic related to a previous crash involving a fire truck on Interstate 90 when he was struck by a white Toyota Camry, police said. The car had not been found. Police were looking for a vehicle with front-end damage and a partial license plate of GTD.

"Officer struck by vehicle on I-90 west/Warren Road. vehicle did not stop. possibly a white Toyota Camry, front end damage w GTD in plate," Cleveland police tweeted after the crash.

It's increasingly becoming more dangerous to be a police officer. At least 64 law enforcement officers were fatally shot in 2016 and 135 officers in all lost their lives., the highest total in five years, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. The year before, 41 police were officers were fatally shot and 123 police officers were killed.

"We’ve never seen a year in my memory when we’ve had an increase of this magnitude in officer shooting deaths,” said Craig Floyd, president and chief executive of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. “These officers were killed simply because of the uniform they wear and the job they do. This is unacceptable to the humane society that we are.”

Vehicle related fatalities are also on the rise. There were 35,092 deaths in motor vehicle crashes in 2015, up 7.2 percent from 2014, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That is the biggest increase in almost 50 years. In all, 96 people were killed in a motor vehicle crash every day, while 6,700 people were injured.