Every year more than 200 law enforcement agencies compile crime information and pass it along to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation in hopes they can get a snapshot of trends in crime both in their municipality and around the state.
Two reports were released on Monday, one detailing statistics surrounding domestic violence in the state, and one focused on statistics surrounding law enforcement officers killed or assaulted while on duty.
TBI spokesperson Josh DeVine talked about a study regarding violence toward police.
"There were 1,757 victims reported in our 2015 study," he said.
The statistics show that there were nearly five incidents every day of violence toward police officers, most of which people don't hear about unless there is cell phone video or dash camera video released.
The most common crime toward police was simple assault in 2015, and this year assault is something many police have to deal with.
In April, an officer with the Metro Nashville Police Department was attacked while attempting to make an arrest in the Cayce Homes in East Nashville. While incidents like that are something most people never want to see, the data gathered from incidents like it have served as a tool to local police departments.
"We really want to equip them with the hard numbers so that they can ask some ought questions on the back end. 'Are we doing everything we can to prevent certain types of crime? Do we need to allocate resources differently?'" Devine said.
The data in the studies was so specific that departments can see when one of their officers is most likely to face danger, which the TBI hoped will allow departments to decide whether they need to adjust their staffing during certain time periods to protect their officers.
The numbers showed a one percent increase in the number of assaults on officers from 2014 to 2015, reaffirming that being a police officer is a difficult job.
"This study serves as a reminder that sometimes in the course of protecting and serving, they encounter dangers that a lot of us frankly wouldn't have the bravery or the guts to necessarily deal with," DeVine said.
While the reports were made available to police departments, the studies were also available for the general public.
If you would like to review the data in the studies and see what statistics are available for your neighborhood, you can visit the TBI's website: http://tn.gov/tbi/article/recent-publications
