A 1999 BLS study of police and firefighter fatality risks lists the 15 occupations with the highest fatality rates for 1997. Law enforcement ranked #14: just above electrician, just below non-construction laborers, and well below farming, roofers, truck and cab drivers, and construction laborers. The highest risk occupations - timber cutter, fisher, seaman, and aircraft pilot - had fatality rates 7-9 times the fatality rate of police. As this chart shows, the lethal risk of police work was closer to the risk of the average worker than it was to the high risk work of construction or driving a taxi.
Source:Fatalities to Law Enforcement Officers and Firefighters, 1992-97 (PDF), US Bureau of Labor Statistics
