Average life expectancy of law enforcers?

No one really knows, because of the lack of hard data. State pension funds may know the average age of people receiving retirement benefits when they die, but they either regard the information as confidential or don't separate out law enforcers from other public employees. Some law officers leave law enforcement before they are eligible for a pension, and their representation is lost to a retirement system.

Anecdotally, it appears that cops don't live as long as people in other professions, although there are a lot of variables. Most career officers can list names of fellow cops who retired and died shortly thereafter, but each case is unique. Did the officer have some health problem that caused his retirement, and later his death? Did the officer retire in good health, and then suffered a fatal stroke, heart attack or onset of fatal disease like cancer shortly after retirement?

One metric that has come to light in recent years is that two to six times as many law enforcement officers commit suicide as die from traditional line-of-duty causes. One's profession is seldom listed as a contributing cause in suicide, so this data is lost or incomplete.

The present generation of law enforcement officers will probably live longer than those who went before them. Today's officers are better educated about psychological stress and the diseases it promotes, and they generally have healthier lifestyles. Obesity, substance abuse, and poor lifestyle habits are still a problem, but the cop of today is less likely than previous generations to have these issues.