The number of police officers killed in the line of duty in 2023 is on track to surpass the previous year’s death toll, according to data released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). This grim trend has prompted renewed concerns over the safety of law enforcement officers across the United States.
As of August 9, 41 officers have lost their lives while on duty this year, compared to 39 felonious deaths during the same period in 2022, as reported by the FBI’s Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted data collection.
“The war on cops in 2022 just continued to march on,” Fraternal Order of Police National Vice President Joe Gamaldi remarked earlier this year in an interview with Fox Live.
One recent attack on a Connecticut officer brought the trend further into the spotlight.
Officer Karli Travis’ body camera showed her fighting for her life after she responded to a noise complaint. The video captured a man charging at the officer with a hammer, causing her to shoot him multiple times. Thankfully, Travis narrowly survived the attack. The attacker was later arrested after fleeing the encounter.
The FBI designates an officer’s death as “felonious” when it results from a “willful and intentional act by an offender.” Last year, 61 officers lost their lives in such circumstances, a decrease from the 71 officers killed in 2021 but still indicative of a concerning trend over the past decade.
Furthermore, statistics compiled by the National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund indicated that 64 officers were killed in 2022, marking a 21% increase from the annual average of 53 officers per year between 2010 and 2020.
Out of the officers killed in 2023 so far, 32 were killed by gunfire, while four were struck by vehicles. Various other methods and weapons were used in the remaining cases.
Patrick Yoes, president of the National Fraternal Order of Police (NFOP), noted that 2022 stood out as one of the most dangerous years for law enforcement in recent history, citing the “nationwide crime crisis.”
Yoes further believes that criminals have become emboldened due to the “failed policies of pandering prosecutors and cynical politicians.”
While data for 2023 and 2022 is yet to be officially published, the FBI’s 2021 data indicated an 11.2% increase in assaults on law enforcement officers compared to 2020. Assaults involving weapons also saw a 10.5% rise. Moreover, the number of officers sustaining multiple injuries from these assaults increased by 18.3%, a statistically significant figure.
However, Justin Nix, a professor at the University of Nebraska’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, pointed to limitations of the data due to incomplete reporting, with only around 53% of the approximately 17,500 police departments in the country currently sharing their data following the FBI’s transition from the Uniform Crime Reporting system to the National Incident-Based Reporting System.
Despite these limitations, participation in data sharing is gradually increasing, suggesting a potential for more comprehensive insights in the future.
The FBI’s data on assaults revealed that a significant majority (74.3%) were carried out using hands, fists or feet. Firearms accounted for 5.1% of assaults, knives were involved in 2.3% and the remaining 18.3% utilized other dangerous weapons.
