FBI Releases Officers Killed and Assaulted in the Line of Duty, 2023 Special Report and Law Enforcement Employee Counts
On May 14, 2024, the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program released Officers Killed and Assaulted in the Line of Duty, 2023 Special Report and data from the Law Enforcement Employee Counts on the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer at cde.ucr.cjis.gov.
Officers Killed and Assaulted in the Line of Duty, 2023 Special Report, provides preliminary counts of law enforcement officers killed and assaulted in 2023, as well as an in-depth analysis of law enforcement officers who were killed or assaulted from 2014 through 2023, based on the data voluntarily provided by law enforcement agencies to the FBI’s UCR Program.
The study of the data reveals, from 2021 to 2023, more officers were feloniously killed (194) than in any other consecutive three-year period in the past 20 years (73 officers in 2021, 61 officers in 2022, and 60 officers in 2023).
Information about offenders of officer felonious killings in 2023 show there were 57 offenders, 54 were male, 28 were white, 8 were reported as having a mental illness, and there were 32 violent prior arrests/offenses from an unknown number of offenders.
From 2014 through 2023, the South region had the most line-of-duty deaths yearly compared to other regions. There was a 38% decrease in line-of-duty deaths in the region in 2023 (20 deaths) compared to 2022 (32 deaths). Last year marked the lowest number of line-of-duty deaths in the South since 2015 (19 deaths).
While there has been a slow decline of officers feloniously killed in the line of duty over the past three years, a study of the data shows the rate of officers assaulted has increased each of the past three years.
Agencies reported 79,091 officers were assaulted in 2023, marking the highest officer assault rate in the past 10 years. Most officer assaults occurred when responding to simple assaults against a non-officer (6,783 incidents), followed by drug/narcotic violations (4,879).
The number of officers assaulted and injured by firearms has climbed over the years, reaching a 10-year high in 2023 with approximately 466 officers assaulted and injured by firearms.
Also released today was 2023 information from the Law Enforcement Employee Counts Data Collection. Law enforcement agencies provide these counts to the FBI annually and account for all sworn law enforcement officers and full-time civilian employees. This information may be used by city, county, state, and federal law enforcement agencies to establish manpower needs, both number and makeup, to provide effective enforcement and protection.
The annual Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted publication will be released later this year and will consist of data tables on law enforcement officers who were feloniously and accidentally killed and assaulted in the line of duty in 2023.
