You Need the FBI’s Full Report To Learn of Police Killed on Duty
December 10, 2004
by Joseph P. Tartaro
Executive Editor
Annually, the FBI prepares and publishes in printed and digital form a comprehensive report on law enforcement officers killed and assaulted while on duty. It is a large and detailed report that includes the last full year of data as well as the most recent 5-year and 10-year figures for trend analysis.
The report is divided into three main sections, each complete with its own tables, charts and graphs, so that the data can be studied from several perspectives; there is also an appendix. In addition to the tabular information, Section I—Law Enforcement Officers Feloniously Killed—also includes summary reports of each incident included in the data for the year, and a subsection “Law Enforcement Officers Accidentally Killed.” Section I reports on felonious killings and accidental deaths includes information involving local, state, tribal and federal officers.
The other two main sections are: Section II—Law Enforcement Officers Assaulted, and Section III—Federal Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted.
In addition to the number of officers feloniously or accidentally killed, the report includes the age, race and sex of the officers, their experience, the agencies that employed them, the circumstances of each incident, the time of day, day of week, month of year, whether or not the victim was wearing body armor at the time of the incident and, of course, the types of weapons involved.
Reader Interest
While the data is public information which may be of interest to all Americans, the report is of special value to law enforcement trainers and administrators. For example, much can be learned about circumstances, times of day or weapons involved, information that can be used in training recruits or for in-service training in departments that actually budget for that purpose.
For people involved in the great gun rights debate, much of the data is extremely useful, either to refute claims made by the gun banners, or to learn what if any gun laws are valuable or even applicable, and whether or not some types of weapons pose a greater threat than others for sworn law enforcement officers.
Most Gun Week readers would probably be interested in whether the data illustrates an increase or a decrease in the number of officers killed and injured, particularly as to the types of firearms and weapons involved.
Many policy makers and journalists use the data selectively, focusing on what supports their agendas. However, the reports should be treated as a whole, even though I don’t have the space to do so here. For those who would like to delve into this material in greater detail, I would suggest obtaining a full copy. It can be downloaded from the Department of Justice/FBI website.
Among the reasons I devote this column to these reports which I have checked from year to year over several decades is that the information provided by the general news media is often deceptive. For example, the Associated Press report issued on Nov. 8 provided only the barest information. The entire wire service report said:
“The FBI reported on Nov. 8 that 132 police officers were killed in the line of duty in 2003, with guns and traffic accidents claiming the most lives.
“Of the total, which is eight deaths more than in 2002, 49 were killed in traffic accidents and 45 slain with firearms. Thirty-one of those killed with guns were wearing body armor at the time.
“In all cases, the average age of the officer killed was about 37 and average level of police experience 10 years. The totals translate into one officer death every 2.8 days nationally, the FBI estimated.
“Authorities solved all the cases in 2003 of officers who were shot to death or otherwise intentionally killed. Thirty-eight suspects were arrested, 14 were killed by police and six committed suicide, according to the FBI.
“About half of the officers killed intentionally were making traffic stops or arrests. Ten were slain while investigating disturbance calls, and nine were ambushed.
“Twenty-eight of the 52 intentional killings and 37 of the 80 accidental deaths took place in the South, by far the deadliest region.
“In addition to the officer deaths, nearly 58,000 officers were assaulted in 2003 while performing official duties, with more than 16,000 suffering injuries. Eight out of 10 of these attacks involved hands, fists and feet.
“The report was culled from information submitted by more than 10,000 state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies.”
What You Missed
If you actually saw the preceding brief report in your newspaper, or got it on television, radio or the Internet, here’s just a sampling of what you missed.
Of the 50 male and two female officers feloniously killed in 2003, the FBI reported that 34 were slain with handguns, 10 with rifles, and one with a shotgun—a total of 45 by the discharge of firearms. Six were intentionally struck by vehicles and one was beaten to death with a police baton.
The 52 officers slain in 2003 were the third fewest victims in the 10-year period, 1994-2003, and four fewer than in 2002 when 56 were feloniously killed. The highest number killed in one year was in 1994 when 79 officers were slain. In 2001, the total was 70 but many of those resulted from events of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Among the 34 killed by assailants using handguns, 11 of the slain officers were shot with their own weapons.
Thirty-one of the officers killed with a firearm while on duty were wearing body armor at the time of their deaths. Sixteen of these officers died as a result of wounds to the upper torso, 14 from head wounds, and one officer received a fatal wound below the waist.
Of the 16 who received torso wounds, the area that was protected by the armor, 5 died as a result of bullets entering above the vest, three died as a result of bullets entering below the vest, three died from bullets entering through the armhole or shoulder area, and one from a bullet entering between side panels. Four of the officers died when bullets penetrated their body armor.
Of importance to officers and citizens who carry a firearm for defense is the information about the distances between assailants and victims during the 45 incidents summarized. Twenty-four of the victim officers were within five feet of their attackers, 12 of the slain officers were within 6-10 feet of their assailants, three were within 11-20 feet, three were within 21-50 feet, and three were more than 50 feet away. Thus it can be seen that 80% of the shootings took place at distances under 10 feet or three yards or less.
Useful Information
There is a lot of useful information in the “Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted” reports. I haven’t delved here into the assaults, or the accidental deaths.
What struck me in Section III regarding federal officers killed and the 437 assaulted in 2003 was that in almost a third of the assaults, 33.2%, personal weapons were involved, hands, fists, feet, and that vehicles were used as weapons in 9.8% of the assaults, while firearms were used by assailants in 7.8%—the same percentage as when bombs were used as weapons. In part, these differences for federal officers may be due in part to the differences in duties, since many more federal officers might be stationed on guard duty.
All is all, this is a useful report that is largely skipped over by the general media but that contains a lot of information for law enforcement personnel and armed citizens.
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