US Police Officers Worry More for Their Safety in Wake of High-Profile Shootings

93 percent of US law enforcement officers say their colleagues worry more about their personal safety - a level of concern recorded even before a total of eight officers died in separate ambush-style attacks in Dallas and Baton Rouge last July, according to a new research.

NEW YORK (Sputnik) — Vast majority of law enforcement officers in the United States say the recent spike in fatal encounters with residents has significantly increased the level of difficulty of their job, a new Pew Research survey conducted by the National Police Research Platform revealed on Wednesday.

"About nine-in-ten officers (93%) say their colleagues worry more about their personal safety — a level of concern recorded even before a total of eight officers died in separate ambush-style attacks in Dallas and Baton Rouge last July," the survey indicated.

Moreover, 76 percent of officers say they are more reluctant to use force when appropriate as a result of high-profile killings of blacks across the United States.

Less than two-thirds of officers also say they remain skeptical of racially-driven demonstrations by groups such as Black Lives Matter in wake of shootings involving police as they are motivated to a great extent by anti-police bias.

The report utilized data from online interviews with nearly 8,000 law enforcement officers across the United States.