Liam Conner
washington — Sixty police officers nationwide were killed in the line of duty last year — a decrease of one from the previous year — but attacks on officers in the field are on the rise, driven by rising gun violence, according to an FBI report released Tuesday.
The statistics were collected from law enforcement agencies across the country — including state, local and tribal districts — and showed a slight decrease in overall officer deaths, continuing the downward trend since the recent 2021 peak of 73 officers killed in the fulfillment of duty. .
Still, according to the report, the last three years (2021-2023) have seen the collective highest number of law enforcement deaths “than any other consecutive 3-year period in the last 20 years.”
Overall, 52% of police officers who were killed in the line of duty died from a gunshot wound in 2023, a slight increase from 2022, and firearms were the most commonly used weapons. More officers have been killed in the South, which is the country’s largest region, than in any other part of the U.S., the FBI said, although the South has seen a significant decrease in overall officer deaths — 20 in 2023 compared to 32 in 2022.
An FBI official told reporters on Tuesday that while the number of police officers killed in combat over the past three years has declined, at the same time there has been a steady increase in attacks on law enforcement. The official said the FBI is working to understand the underlying reasons for this reverse trend.
Based on preliminary data, according to the report, “10,884 agencies employing 600,120 officers reported 79,091 assaults on officers, indicating a rate of 13.2 assaults per 100 officers.”
In 2023, the number of police officers assaulted by firearms reached about 466, the highest number in 10 years, the FBI said.
The release of the report comes as the country marks National Police Week. On Monday night, Attorney General Merrick Garland and other law enforcement leaders participated in a candlelight vigil on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to honor fallen law enforcement officers across the country. .
Last month, four members of a US Marshals Service task force were shot and killed trying to arrest a fugitive wanted for possession of a firearm. In total, eight police officers were shot.
One suspect died at the scene and two others were arrested.
Speaking at a memorial for Deputy U.S. Marshal Thomas Weeks, one of those killed, earlier this month, Garland said the officers’ deaths “will serve as a stark reminder of the enormous risks our law enforcement officers face every day, even when perform relatively routine tasks. arrests they make every day.”
“Every day our police officers go to work knowing that day could be their last. Every day their families send them to work, praying that this doesn’t happen.”
