Assaults on the Police

Robert J. Kaminski & David A. Klinger

Policing is dangerous business. Law enforcement officers are victims of nonfatal assaults more often than workers in any other occupation, and they are murdered at rates second only to taxicab drivers/ chauffeurs. FBI records indicate that during the decade ending in 2001, an average of more than 130 police officers died each year in the line of duty, and this figure does not include the 72 officers who perished from the terrorist attack on September 11,2001. Almost half of the officers who died in recent years lost their lives at the hands of criminals who attacked them. FBI figures for this time frame also show that more than 19,000 other officers were injured in assaults perpetrated by citizens each year, and that just under 41,000 other officers were victims of attacks in which they suffered no injuries. As dramatic as these figures are, historical data indicate that violence directed at ...

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