WASHINGTON (AP) - More police officers have died in the line of duty this year in the United States than in 2017.
That's according to data compiled by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.
The organization said in a report Thursday that 144 federal, state and local officers have died so far in 2018. That's up from the 129 who died in 2017.
The majority of the officers who died were shot or fatally injured in car crashes. Other deaths involved heart attacks, drownings and cancer and other illnesses developed by responders to the World Trade Center attack.
The officers who died include a sheriff's deputy in Sacramento County, California killed in a shootout, and a Greensboro, North Carolina police officer killed in a car crash while responding to a robbery call.
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