FBI: 76 Law Enforcement Officers Killed in Line of Duty Last Year; 49,851 Assaulted
November 24, 2014 - 10:17 AM
By Susan Jones
(CNSNews.com) - The FBI on Monday said 76 law enforcement officers were killed in the line of duty in 2013; and another 49,851 officers -- 136 a day -- were assaulted while performing their duties last year, down from 53,867 assaulted in 2012.
Of the 49,851 officers attacked last year, 14,565 -- or 29.2 percent -- were injured. And of those injured officers, the largest percentage -- 31.2 percent -- were assaulted while responding to disturbance calls, such as domestic disputes or bar fights.
The FBI says assailants used personal weapons (hands, fists, feet, etc.) in 79.8 percent of the incidents; firearms in 4.5 percent of incidents; and knives or other cutting instruments in 1.8 percent of the incidents. (Other weapons were used in 13.9 percent of assaults.)
The report does not provide a racial breakdown of the assaulted officers or of the known suspects.
For the fifteenth consecutive year, the largest percentage of assaults on officers (15.1 percent) happened from 12:01 a.m. to 2 a.m. The smallest percentage of assaults on officers (2.5 percent) occurred between 6:01 a.m. and 8 a.m.
Of the 76 law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty in 2013, 27 died in "felonious acts," well below the 49 feloniously killed in 2012. Forty-nine died in accidents.
Of the 27 officers killed feloniously in 2013, all but one were shot. One was hit by a vehicle.
The average age of the officers killed in felonies was 39 years. Two were female. Twenty-five were white, and two were black.
Fifteen of the felonious deaths happened in the South, six in the West, four in the Midwest, and two in the Northeast.
Most of the officers killed accidentally in the line of duty were killed in car crashes. All 49 of those officers were male. Forty-one were white, six were black, and race was not reported for two officers.
In 2013, the FBI collected assault data from 11,468 law enforcement agencies that employed 533,895 officers. These officers provided service to more than 247 million persons, or 78.2 percent of the nation’s population.
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http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/fbi-76-law-enforcement-officers-killed-line-duty-last-year-49851-assaulted
