The Federal Bureau of Investigations’ (FBI) Uniform Crime Reporting Program (UCR) recently released 2020 statistics for the Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted (LEOKA) portion of their Law Enforcement Data Explorer.
Data for 2020 shows a total of 60,105 law enforcement officers assaulted while performing their duties; an increase of 4,071 from the 56,034 assaults reported in 2019.
-
- Of the 60,105 officers who were assaulted in 2020, 18,568 (30.9%) sustained injuries.
- 44,421 officers were assaulted with personal weapons (e.g., hands, fists, or feet); 25.8% of these officers were injured.
- 2,744 officers were assaulted with firearms; 6.1% of these officers were injured.
- 1,180 officers were assaulted with knives or other cutting instruments; 9.7% of these officers were injured.
- The remaining 11,760 officers were assaulted with other types of dangerous weapons; 16.8% of these officers were injured.
Statistics released earlier this year reported 93 law enforcement officers died in the line of duty in 2020. Of these, 46 officers died as a result of felonious acts, and 47 officers died in accidents.
“Through the Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted (LEOKA) Data Collection, the FBI provides data and training that helps keep law enforcement officers safe as they protect the nation’s communities. The goal is to provide relevant, high quality, potentially lifesaving information to law enforcement agencies focusing on why an incident occurred, as opposed to what occurred during the incident, with the hope of preventing future incidents. The data collected is analyzed by the LEOKA team and the results are incorporated into the officer safety awareness training the FBI provides for partner agencies.”
The Homeland Security Digital Library (HSDL) offers additional resources of interest, including access to LEOKA data from previous years. Please note that some of these resources require an HSDL login.
Need help finding something? Ask one of our librarians for assistance!
