To Serve, Protect And Die?

Another American cop is buried every other day, reports CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart. Thursday it was Capitol Hill Officer John Gibson, the 89th funeral of the year. Friday, it will be Jacob Chesnut, his partner.

Their memorial was one for the ages. All of congress turned out. So did the president. It was broadcast to the entire nation.

The funeral for the officer who died just before them was far less conspicuous. The friends and family of Indiana State Trooper David Deuter filled a school gymnasium last week to honor him. Deuter also died in the line of duty. A truck hit him as he stood beside a car he had just pulled over. Indiana also counts her dead, and Deuter was number 38.

It is happening so often, that the ritual of police death has become a cottage industry in this country. Several departments now have manuals on how to conduct funerals. Black mourning bands are now factory made.

That way they last longer, explains retired officer Terry Board.

"They're reusing them, it's happening so much," said Board.

One look at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, and it's clear that no other profession in America is experiencing such an increase in carnage. The death toll for police was up 20 percent last year, and no one is sure why. The names just keep mounting.

The list just keeps growing.

As of 6 p.m. eastern time tonight, the death toll stood at 93 for the year: 19 in car wrecks, 12 struck by vehicles, eight by drowning, two in motorcycle wrecks, one in a helicopter, one in a boat, another by a bomb, eight in other accidents, and 41 shot to death.

It is all adding up to another record year.

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