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FBI... In the Line of Duty
Law Enforcement
Officers Killed and Assaulted, 2014 Report Released
10/19/15
On May 29, 2014, a 42-year-old trooper with the New York State Police
made a traffic stop on an interstate highway north of Binghamton. The
veteran trooper parked behind the stopped car and approached the
driver’s side window. In that fleeting moment, a truck traveling in the
same direction at about 90 miles per hour suddenly swerved, sideswiping
the car and striking the trooper, killing him instantly. The truck’s
driver, a 60-year-old male with a criminal record, admitted after his
capture that he intentionally veered to hit the trooper.
The chilling account of the unprovoked attack is just one of dozens of
detailed narratives recounting the felonious deaths of law enforcement
officers in the United States in 2014. The accounts are a central
component of the latest Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted
(LEOKA) report, issued today, which shows that 96 law enforcement
officers were killed in the line of duty last year—51 as a result of
felonious acts and 45 in accidents. The annual report, released by the
FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, also shows that 48,315
officers were victims of line-of-duty assaults in 2014.
In addition to the narratives, the online-only report includes
comprehensive data tables that provide a closer look at the incidents:
officer profiles, circumstances, weapons, locations, and identified
suspects.
The felonious deaths of the 51 officers—all males—occurred in 24 states
and Puerto Rico. The figure represents a significant increase over the
number that occurred in 2013, when 27 officers were killed, but is
lower than the numbers from 2009 (56 officers) and 2005 (55 officers).
Among the report’s findings:
The average age of the officers who were feloniously
killed was 39, and they had served for an average of 13 years.
Offenders used firearms to kill 46 of the 51 victim
officers: 33 were slain with handguns, 10 with rifles, and three with
shotguns.
59 alleged assailants (54 of them males) were
identified in connection with the line-of-duty deaths; 50 had prior
criminal arrests.
39 of the officers feloniously killed with firearms
were wearing body armor at the time of the incidents.
The largest percentage (30.8) of assaults on police
officers occurred while they were responding to disturbance calls.
The LEOKA publication contains data on duly-sworn city,
university/college, county, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement
officers. The information in the report comes from various sources: the
law enforcement agencies participating in the UCR Program, FBI field
offices, and several non-profit organizations, such as the Concerns of
Police Survivors and the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial
Fund.
In addition to collecting details about the critical aspects of fatal
confrontations and assaults, the FBI’s LEOKA Program conducts extensive
research on the data that eventually gets incorporated into officer
safety awareness training the FBI provides for partner agencies.
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