FBI Releases Officers Killed and Assaulted in the Line of Duty, 2024 Special Report
By Murray Montgomery
Staff Writer
Following Police Week, which occurred last week, a recent FBI press release brings us the sobering facts about the dangers that men and women in uniform face when they leave their homes and report for duty.
On Monday, May 12, 2025, the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program released the "Officers Killed and Assaulted in the Line of Duty, 2024 Special Report" and data from the Law Enforcement Employee Counts on the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer (CDE) at cde.ucr.cjis.gov.
According to the FBI: “In 2024, 64 officers were feloniously killed in the line of duty. That is consistent with the number of officers feloniously killed in the previous two years; however, the rate of assaults against officers increased from 2022 to 2024. Firearms were the most reported weapon used in fatal incidents.”
Information about offenders of officer killings in 2024 shows there were 61 offenders reported for the felonious deaths. Of these offenders, 95.9% were male, 57.9% were white, and 32 offenders were reported to have a prior criminal record.
For each of the 10 years under consideration, the South region had the most line-of-duty deaths. There was a 45% increase in the deaths in that region in 2024 (29 deaths) compared to 2023 (20 deaths). Agencies reported 85,730 officer assaults in 2024, indicating a rate of 13.5 assaults per 100 officers, marking the highest officer assault rate in the past 10 years.
The number of officers assaulted and injured by firearms has climbed over the years, reaching a 10-year high in 2023, with approximately 500 officers assaulted and injured by firearms. In 2024, the number of officers assaulted and injured by firearms dropped to approximately 457 officers.
Most of the FBI statistics in this report come from 2024. Regardless of the year, there can be no doubt that being a police officer in America is a dangerous job. Forty-seven law enforcement officers killed in the first eight months of 2024 represent a 6.8 percent increase compared to the 44 officers killed during the same period in 2023.
Firearms were used in 76.6 percent of the deaths occurring in 2024. Among officers killed with firearms, four are confirmed to have been wearing body armor. The leading circumstances surrounding the officers’ deaths were related to investigative/enforcement (16), unprovoked attacks (8), and ambushes (entrapment/premeditation) (6).
The 16 investigative/enforcement-related deaths in 2024 represent a 77.8 percent increase compared to the nine during the same time in 2023, and unprovoked attacks increased 300 percent in 2024 (8) when comparing the first eight months of 2023 (2). Accidental law enforcement deaths increased 31.8 percent when comparing the first eight months of 2024 (29) with those of 2023 (22).
The FBI has the country divided up into sections when it comes to reporting statistics. The Southern region, which includes Texas, had the most law enforcement deaths in 2024, with 37 deaths total (20 felonious, 17 accidental). Additionally, 23 officers died from the following medical conditions in 2024: heart attack (9), natural causes (6), conditions related to 9/11 response (5), and cancer (3).
Any time one police officer is killed, in the line of duty, that is one too many. But there is a positive report from the National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund. Comparing a corresponding length of time from 2024 to 2025, a decline in deaths is shown. The period from Jan 1 – May 9, 2024 versus Jan 1 – May 9, 2025, shows that fatalities are down by 60 percent. There were 70 officer deaths in 2024 compared to 28, so far, in 2025.
Hopefully, this downward trend will continue to the point where all law enforcement officers will complete their shifts and return home safely to their families.