FBI: Killings of Police Officers Down, while Attacks on Them Up

Over the past three years, killings of law enforcement officers in the line of duty have slowly declined, but the rate of assaults on officers has climbed during the same span, a new FBI report revealed.

In 2023, 79,092 officers were attacked, and last year had the highest assault rate in the past 10 years, according to data released this week by the FBI. The year also reached a 10-year high, with roughly 466 officers assaulted and injured by firearms.

The study by the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program provides preliminary counts of law enforcement officers killed and assaulted in 2023. It also gives analysis of officers who were killed or assaulted from 2014. 

Although killings of officers has slightly dropped since 2021, that three-year period has seen the more officers killed—194—than any other consecutive three-year span in the past two decades. The following lists the number of officers killed in each year:

• 2021: 73
• 2022: 61
• 2023: 60

The South saw the most line-of-duty deaths annually from 2014 to 2023, according to the report. Line-of-duty deaths in the South decreased 38% in 2023, and last year saw the fewest line-of-duty deaths—20—in the region since 2015—20.

Go to the FBI's website for the full report.