Deadly ambush attacks on police officers in the United States, like the one that killed two of Bristol’s finest, have doubled in 2022 to 10 cases compared to five this time last year, according to FBI statistics.

The startling statistic, although small in number considering there are more than 640,000 law enforcement officers in the United States, has policing experts working overtime to find ways to make ambush attacks more survivable, as there is no way to prevent an ambush from happening.

Local criminal justice experts are floating ideas such as repealing the Second Amendment to limit access to guns, increasing training to survive an ambush and even the use of paramilitary equipment by police, such as body armor, shields and patrol rifles.

Those experts also say there are practical obstacles to all of those moves, given politics, limited budgets and a negative perception of police following high-profile police-involved deaths, including that of George Floyd.

While ambush-style attacks on officers are up, overall, police killings have decreased since 2021, the statistics show.

“After Bristol, the best and the brightest have to look at ways to protect the officers [from ambush],” said Newington Police Chief Steve Clark, who lost friend and colleague Master Police Officer Peter Lavery to an ambush in 2004. “We have to look at ways to help survival during an ambush. Everything’s on the table at this point.”

The Bristol community is still reeling from Oct. 12 fatal shootings of Sgt. Alex Hamzy, 34, who leaves a wife, parents, and sisters and Lt. Dustin DeMonte, 35, who is survived by his wife Laura, who is pregnant, and two young children.

The two men, beloved and respected veteran officers, were shot multiple times by Nicholas Brutcher. A third officer, Alec Iurato, was also shot, but despite great pain from his wound, was able to make his way to a position where he shot and killed Brutcher, ending the barrage of gunfire.

Brutcher fired more than 80 rounds from a high-powered rifle.

The investigation is continuing, but it appears the shooter lured the officers with a fake 911 call.

What is an ambush?

The International Association of Chiefs of Police defines an ambush assault as one that has an “element of surprise, concealment of the assailant, their intentions or weapon, suddenness of the attack and a lack of provocation.”

Ambushes are classified in two ways, according to the organization: premeditated entrapment ambushes and spontaneous unprovoked attacks without long-term planning.

Although ambush deaths are up 100%, “felonious” or criminal killings of police officers are down. The 49 law enforcement officers feloniously killed in the first nine months of 2022 represent a 9.3% decrease compared to the 54 officers killed during the same period in 2021, according to FBI statistics.

Firearms were used in 83.7% of felonious deaths in 2022, the FBI statistics show.

Statistics from the FBI’s “Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted Program,” commonly referred to as LEOKA, also show:

Of the 49 felonious killings of police officers, 10 were ambush, characterized by entrapment and premeditation; one during an arrest situation; two assisting another law enforcement officer; three during crimes in progress, such as robbery and burglary; five during a disturbance, such as domestic or civil disorder, two encountering or assisting an emotionally disturbed person; nine during investigations such as drugs, traffic violations; one deploying traffic equipment such as flares, traffic cones; three in pursuit; one in a report of a crime; two attempting to serve a court order; four in a tactical situation; and six unprovoked attacks.Unprovoked attacks in 2022 on police officers decreased 66.7% compared to the same time period in 2021. There were six in 2022 and 18 in 2021 during the same time period.Accidental law enforcement deaths increased 2.4% when comparing the first nine months of 2022 with those of 2021.Accidental deaths in 2022 were due primarily to motor vehicle accidents, pedestrian officers being struck by vehicles and airplane crashes.The southern region of the United States has the most law enforcement deaths in 2022, with 47 (24 felonious, 23 accidental).72 officers have died in the line of duty in 2022 from medical conditions, including 51 from illnesses related to COVID-19, 10 officers from heart attacks, three officers from conditions as a result of response to 9/11, and eight due to other natural causes.There were 43 accidental deaths of police officers, including 25 motor vehicle crashes, one assisting a motorist, two engaging in a vehicle pursuit, 11 patrolling, nine struck by vehicles, one overseeing a work zone, four performing traffic control, two in a fall and six due to an aircraft crash.

Is repealing the Second Amendment the answer?

University of New Haven professor John DeCarlo, who has a Ph.D. in criminal justice and was a Branford police officer and chief for 35 years, said the easy availability of guns is largely to blame for endangering cops and the public. Repealing the Second Amendment would go a long way to lowering death by ambush, but would never fly politically, he said.

“We can come up with solutions, but the trick is coming up with solutions everyone wants to buy into,” DeCarlo said. “We live in a society [that] fetishizes guns. We have a Second Amendment. Guns are all over the place and easy to obtain. We here in the United States are a gun culture.”

DeCarlo said people easily resort to firearms because there are firearms.

“It doesn’t take a lot of brain power to come up with a solution. What it takes is political will,” DeCarlo said, referring to strict gun laws.

He said those in favor of the Second Amendment — or right to bear arms — will argue that if guns were outlawed only criminals would have guns.

He said that’s a fallacious argument because the data speaks volumes in places such as the United Kingdom and Australia, where gun laws are super strict, cops rarely get shot. In the United Kingdom, there has only been one police officer fatally shot in 10 years, he said.

“We need to change policies already put into place,” DeCarlo said.

DeCarlo said more training and equipment could help keep police officers safe in ambush and other situations, but that costs money.

Money to fund police departments — salaries and training equipment — comes from municipalities through tax dollars, DeCarlo said.

He questions whether those increased costs will realistically be covered in a time when some are calling to “defund the police.” Again, DeCarlo questions whether or not there is political will.

“We’re looking for policy changes to potentially prevent this from happening again,” DeCarlo said. “Cops are really worried they won’t go home.”

DeCarlo said giving cops technology would also help to protect them, but the country has “a complicated legal system” that inhibits cops in some ways because of the Fourth Amendment that protects against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Wearing protective military-grade equipment could be ‘intimidating’

Retired New Haven Police Lt. Lisa Dadio, director of the Center for Advanced Policing at the University of New Haven, said in the Bristol case, surviving Officer Iurato did everything perfectly in keeping with training.

“In a positive way we’re going to learn what Iurato did,” Dadio said. “Mentally, he was prepared. He stopped the threat.”

Dadio said there’s a lot of talk about how officers should wear military-grade ballistic vests, but she said cost, comfort, weight and public perception are a barrier.

“While the threat is always there for police officers, most people aren’t walking around with an AR-15 looking to kill a police officer,” she said, noting they’re seeing an increase in fatal knife attacks on police.

She said once an officer puts on a helmet and body armor and carries a shield like a SWAT team member, “You’re no longer officer friendly.”

“It would be intimidating,” Dadio said, noting it would fly in the face of the trend of community policing. “The community doesn’t want this. They’re fighting us now on we’re too militaristic.”

She said most departments have patrol rifles usually kept in cruisers, but those rifles couldn’t be used in densely populated cities like Hartford, New Haven and Bridgeport because the officer would have to be 100% accurate.

The more information an officer has before a call is helpful and could give clues as to whether they’re going into a dangerous situation.

Many departments have technology that gives helpful information as soon as a call comes in, including whether officers have been to the home, knowing if people who live there are combative, knowing if there are any registered firearms and whether there are previous arrests. But Dadio said someone might call from the street and say there’s a problem with a light in order to get officers there for an ambush.

“There’s nothing foolproof. Sometimes there’s a bogus call to get people there,” Dadio said.

Part of the research being done on ambush attacks is on what the motivation is to hurt cops, the experts said. Part of what they have learned is there is often a triggering event. It has not been revealed by instigators yet what might have motivated Brutcher.

She said the Bristol officers were walking into a situation where the killer had every intent to kill.

“The officers didn’t stand a chance,” she said. “It was a planned attack.”

She said the shootings in Bristol not only impact the officers’ loved ones and the community, but also law enforcement throughout the country.

“It hits home.”

Killing of Bristol officers a ‘cultural problem’

Al DiChiara, chairman of the department of sociology and criminal justice at the University of Hartford, said ambushes are “rare,” — more cops are killed accidentally, he said. He agrees with DeCarlo on the gun issue.

“Too many people have too many guns. The cost of all those guns will be the killing of police officers,” he said. “Because of politics, it won’t change. Guns are here to stay.”

DiChiara said the killings of Hamzy and DeMonte and other ambush victims were done to make a statement to society.

“They did it to make a point,” DiChiara said. “How do you address that mindset?”

He said the killings of the Bristol officers are representative of a cultural problem.

“There’s a lot of anger and hate in society these days. Whether you’re right wing or left wing, you’ll find people who don’t like cops,” he said. “The society we live in is falling apart, and this might be a symptom of that.”

The Bristol deaths brought Chief Clark back to the day in 2004 when Lavery was ambushed on what started as a routine “check welfare” call that turned into a domestic.

“I really feel for those guys — it’s tough,” Clark said of the Bristol force. “It makes you think back. The other day on Route 9 the procession went by, the cars drove by and the faces on the officers.”

Lavery was shot unexpectedly with an assault rifle as he ascended a staircase, hit 12-18 times with gunfire. Lavery did everything correctly on the call, but didn’t stand a chance, Clark said.

“If you look at Peter’s situation, he was waiting for him and there was nowhere Peter could go,” Clark said.

Clark said the tragic impact of the killings is multilayered far beyond the obvious loss to the officers’ families.

“These are families who have young kids watching their parents go to work” and wondering whether they’ll come home, Clark said.