Seventy-two law enforcement officers
were feloniously killed in the line of duty last year, according to preliminary
statistics released today. The figure is 16 more officers than were killed the
previous year. Release of the report coincides with National Police Week May
13-19, when law enforcement officers from around the world gather in
Washington, D.C. to honor colleagues who have made the ultimate sacrifice.
Of the 72 officers killed, 14 were
victims of unprovoked attacks, 11 were killed during traffic pursuits or stops,
six were killed during tactical situations, five were killed during
entrapments/premeditated ambushes, and five were slain while investigating
suspicious persons or circumstances.
“Each of these losses is devastating,”
FBI Director Robert S. Mueller said in a video message to law enforcement
colleagues. “And each one reminds us that the safety and the freedom we enjoy
come only at great cost.”
The FBI will release final statistics on
officers killed and assaulted in the line of duty in the Uniform Crime Reporting
(UCR) Program’s publication, Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted,
2011, which will be published on the FBI’s website in the fall.
The UCR Program, part of the FBI’s
Criminal Justice Information Services Division, has been collecting and
publishing law enforcement statistics since 1937, most notably the annual Crime
in the United States reports. In 1972, the FBI began producing detailed reports
on officer fatalities after the larger law enforcement community sought the
Bureau’s involvement in preventing and investigating officer deaths.
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