North Texas Police Chief Calls On Society To 'Wake Up' After Recent Officer Shooting Deaths

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - In the first two weeks of 2019, seven police officers across the country have been killed.

Grand Prairie Police Chief Steve Dye is bringing attention to this on social media and said he will continue to be outspoken until he sees change.

On Monday, he tweeted: "Seven police officers killed in the first 13 days of 2019 and almost an eight @ArlingtonPD. Our society needs to collectively wake up and stand against the lack of hesitancy to kill or attempt to kill those who protect this county from chaos or disorder."

"I've been a police officer 34 years and we've seen a trend the last few years of more officers being killed or ambushed and quite frankly this has to stop," Dye said.

Dye said these deaths are causing heightened anxiety in officers and taking a toll on their mental health.

"Last year, for the third year in a row, more officer suicides than line of duty deaths so it's not just about getting killed in the line of duty. If you think about it, there's a personal affect. Can you imagine if you went to work every day in an already dangerous profession and now you have the heightened anxiety of knowing that people may try to ambush or kill you for absolutely no reason?"

Dye brought attention to officer Natalie Corona from the Bay Area. Last week, she was working a traffic stop when a man, not involved in the traffic stop, shot and killed her.

"For no, no reason at all she's the target and now she's not with us anymore," Dye said. "That's a travesty in our country and we're better than that."

Dye said people need to step up and demand change.

"We're only going to be better than that if we all speak out against that," Dye said. "We can't just be the police officers and police chiefs saying this is not okay. It's got to be everybody saying quit shooting and killing our police officers."

Dye said more and more people who expressed interest in becoming a police officer are backing away from the profession because they're fearful of the dangers. He said this should be very concerning to the public.

"Don't we want to attract the best people into our profession to protect and serve us?" Dye said. "If it continues to be a free for all against police officers, how many good young men and women are going to want to enter this profession? We're not going to have that pool of applicants that we want. Ultimately, we're going to have to see if we're going to lower our standards to fill our ranks."

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• Grand Prairie Police