The 2024 Mid-Year Preliminary Law Enforcement Officers Fatalities Report, released by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF) on Wednesday, found that there has been a 15% increase in line-of-duty deaths from the previous year.
Read the Full 2024 Mid-Year Preliminary Law Enforcement Officers Fatalities Report
As of June 30, 71 federal, state and local law enforcement officers have died in the line of duty, compared to the 62 officers killed during the same period in 2023.
“Every single line-of-duty death we report represents a selfless sacrifice made on behalf of the community and the nation in which they serve,” National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund CEO Bill Alexander said in a statement. “We lament to document even a single such death, much less report a substantial increase in such deaths year over year. Part of our continuing mission is to use such data to not only highlight the continuing dangers faced by our law enforcement professionals, but to craft policies and training recommendations which we hope will make it safer for the noble men and women who work tirelessly to protect us.”
There was an 89% increase in traffic-related fatalities in the first six months of this year, as 17 officers have died due to traffic-related crashes such as single-vehicle accidents, vehicle collisions, and motorcycle crashes while working along our nation’s roadways. This is compared to the nine crash-related deaths during the same period last year.
During the first half of 2024, 28 officers died from felonious assaults. All of the officers were killed in the line of duty as a result of being fatally shot. There was an 8% increase of officers killed by firearms compared with the first half of 2023. The leading circumstance of firearms fatalities were officers who were killed feloniously during traffic enforcement or a pursuit.
A total of 17 officers died of other causes, such as aircraft accidents, fire-related incidents, and physical-related illnesses including heart attacks and strokes suffered while in the performance of their official duties.
Five officers each, from the states of New York and Texas were killed in the line of duty, four officers each from the states of Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee were killed in the line of duty. Three officers each from Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota as well as three federal officers were killed. Two officers each from Alabama, Arizona, California, Louisiana, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, as well as two tribal officers and two officers from the U.S. Territories were killed. The following states each had one line of duty death: Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Mississippi, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
Looking at gender, 68 fallen officers were male and 3 were female. The average fallen officer’s age was 39 years, with an average of 13 years of service. On average, each fallen officer left behind two children.
Information provided by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.
