FBI Releases 2016 Law Enforcement Officers Killed & Assaulted (LEOKA)

Circumstances

At the time the 66 law enforcement officers were feloniously killed:

• 17 were ambushed (entrapment/premeditation);
• 13 were answering disturbance calls (seven were domestic disturbance calls);
• nine were investigating suspicious persons/circumstances;
• six were engaged in tactical situations;
• five were performing investigative activities (such as surveillances, searches, or interviews);
• four were conducting traffic pursuits/stops;
• three were investigating drug-related matters;
• three were victims of unprovoked attacks;
• one was answering a burglary in progress call or pursuing a burglary suspect(s);
• one was answering a robbery in progress call or pursuing a robbery suspect(s); and
• four were attempting other arrests.

Weapons

• Offenders used firearms to kill 62 of the 66 victim officers.
• Of these 62 officers, 37 were slain with handguns, 24 with rifles, and one with a shotgun.
• Four officers were killed with vehicles used as weapons.

Regions

Thirty of the felonious deaths occurred in the South, 17 in the West, 13 in the Midwest, four in the Northeast, and two in Puerto Rico.

Suspects

• Law enforcement agencies identified 59 alleged assailants in connection with the felonious line-of-duty deaths.
• Forty-five of the assailants had prior criminal arrests, and 14 of the offenders were under judicial supervision at the times of the felonious incidents.

Accidental Deaths

• Fifty-two law enforcement officers were killed accidentally while performing their duties in 2016.
• The majority (26 officers) were killed in automobile accidents.
• The number of accidental line-of-duty deaths increased by seven when compared with the 45 officers who were accidentally killed in 2015.

Officer Profiles

• The average age of the officers who were accidentally killed was 38 years old; the average number of years the victim officers had served in law enforcement was 11.
• Of the 52 officers accidentally killed, 50 were male, and two were female.
• Forty of the officers were white, nine were black/African-American, and race was not reported for three of the officers.

Circumstances

Of the 52 officers accidentally killed:

• 26 died as a result of automobile accidents;
• 12 were struck by vehicles;
• seven officers died due to motorcycle accidents;
• three were accidentally shot;
• two officers drowned;
• one died in an aircraft accident; and
• one officer died in another type of duty-related accident.

Use of Seatbelts

• Use of seatbelts was reported for 21 of the 26 officers killed in automobile accidents.
• Of these 21 officers, 10 were wearing seatbelts, and 11 were not wearing seatbelts at the times of the accidents.
• Of the 11 victim officers who were fatally injured in automobile accidents and were not wearing seatbelts, two were seated in parked motor vehicles at the times of the accidents.

Regions

Twenty-four of the accidental deaths occurred in the South, 12 in the Midwest, nine in the West, five in the Northeast, and two in Puerto Rico.

Assaults

• In 2016, of the 57,180 officers assaulted while performing their duties, 28.9 percent were injured.
• The largest percentage of victim officers (32.2 percent) were assaulted while responding to disturbance calls.
• Assailants used personal weapons (hands, fists, feet, etc.) in 78.0 percent of the incidents, firearms in 4.2 percent of incidents, and knives or other cutting instruments in 1.9 percent of the incidents.
• Other types of dangerous weapons were used in 16.0 percent of assaults.

Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted, 2016 is available exclusively on the FBI’s website at https://ucr.fbi.gov/leoka/2016.