Facebook Follies of Friends and Families

[Eddie Teach]

Delivery drivers getting mugged isn't that unheard of.

[Admiral Yi]

And cops are never mugged, ergo pizza delivery is much more dangerous.

[garbon]

If you just type into Google pretty easy to see articles with source considerations (tiktok meme linking to i think a usatoday article). I only looked briefly so I've no idea what to make of it

[The Larch]

The Thin Bread Line: Why Being a Delivery Driver is More Dangerous Than Being a Cop

A recent Tiktok has gained some traction pointing out that being a delivery driver is actually more dangerous than being a police officer. It features a Papa John's delivery driver getting ready for work, ironically steeling up for the dangers at hand.

The tiktok seems to pull statistics from this reddit post, which further pulls from this USA Today article citing statistics from 2016 Bureau of Labor reports.

These reports say that you're more likely to die on the job as a delivery driver (24.7 annual deaths per 100k workers) than as a police officer (14.6 annual deaths per 100k workers). On the USA today list of the 25 most dangerous jobs in America, working in law enforcement is only number 14. The most dangerous is logging jobs.

A lot of the reddit users on that post point out that the myths of the dangers of police work are statistically untrue. In 2018 for example, of the 687,100, working police and sheriff officers there were only 108 fatal work injuries.Meanwhile, deaths by police fire is on an upward trend year over year with deaths by police in 2018 totalling 996.

Checking the Bureau of Labor's statistics in 2019 against the statistics presented by USA Today also confirms these trends. According to the Bureau's website, of the 5,553 total workplace fatalities in America, delivery drivers made up 1,005 of them.

Furthermore, cop deaths are actually going down year over year. According to FBI statistics in 2019 there were only 89 line of duty deaths. Of these, 48 officers died as a result of felonious acts, and 41 officers died in accidents.

Why delivery drivers have such a high death rate isn't entirely clear, though it seems it can't just be chalked up to car accidents. According to a report by Vice in 2015, there is actually significant occurrences of man-on-pizzaman violence throughout the country.

There are further reports cited throughout the Vice article. For something that for many feels like a joke, anecdotally and statistically analysis unpacks a cultural misunderstanding here. Delivery is a dangerous profession.

[Eddie Teach]

And cops are never mugged, ergo pizza delivery is much more dangerous.

They typically don't have guns and do have a bit of cash on them, so a bit more attractive as a target.

[Josquius]

I approve.

I don't live next to a busy road, but if I did...

[The Brain]

Which of them have more sex on the job?

[Tamas]

If I made a career decision solely based on personal safety, then I would choose police officer over pizza delivery guy. Especially in the US where police officers are not obliged to help people who are being killed.

[mongers]

If I made a career decision solely based on personal safety, then I would choose police officer over pizza delivery guy. Especially in the US where police officers are not obliged to help people who are being killed.

Yesterday's report about the recent school shooing, said close to 400 showed up at the school, most presumably armed.

[DGuller]

Say what you will, but at least all 400 of these cops came home to their families that night.

[crazy canuck]

If I made a career decision solely based on personal safety, then I would choose police officer over pizza delivery guy. Especially in the US where police officers are not obliged to help people who are being killed.

Yesterday's report about the recent school shooing, said close to 400 showed up at the school, most presumably armed.

That's a lot of people waiting for the shooter to run out of bullets.

[Iormlund]

Say what you will, but at least all 400 of these cops came home to their families that night.

Well, except the one whose wife -- a teacher at the school -- was left to bleed out.

[Tonitrus]

The workplace death study is nice for raw numbers, but so would think the means of death is pretty important too.  Not many loggers being directly murdered by another person.

[Jacob]

The workplace death study is nice for raw numbers, but so would think the means of death is pretty important too.  Not many loggers being directly murdered by another person.

Could you lay out the reasoning for that?

[Jacob]

Also, overview of causes of US police officer deaths: https://nleomf.org/memorial/facts-figures/officer-fatality-data/causes-of-law-enforcement-deaths/