331 Law Enforcement Officers Shot in Line of Duty in 2022
The National Fraternal Order of Police released statistics on law enforcement officers shot and killed in the line of duty in 2022.
There were 331 law enforcement officers shot in the line of duty in the year. Sixty-two of the officers were killed by the gunfire. These statistics were as of midnight, December 31, 2022.
The number of deaths by gunfire was up 32 percent from 2020 and 24 percent from 2019. However, it is one fewer than 2021.
The total number of such incidents involving gunfire was up six percent from 2020 and 13 percent from 2019. However, it’s less than the 346 incidents in 2021.
There were 29 incidents in Texas in 2022, the most in the nation. That was followed by Arizona with 21, Georgia with 18, and North Carolina, Kentucky and California with 16 incidents each.
Massachusetts, Nebraska, Maine, North Dakota, South Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont and Hawaii reported no incidents.
The report cites a continued concern about ambush attacks, which are defined as when an “officer is struck by gunfire without any warning or opportunity to defend themselves.”
There were 89 ambush style attacks on law enforcement officers in 2022, resulting in 126 officers shot and 32 killed, meaning more than half of the law enforcement officers killed by gunfire during the year were killed in ambush attacks.
However, those numbers do not include the “countless incidents where an officer was shot at but not struck by gunfire during an ambush-style attack.”
“Premeditated attacks contribute to a worrisome desensitization to evil acts that were once largely considered taboo except by the most depraved individuals,” stated the report.
National President of the Fraternal Order of Police Patrick Yoes said, "It is our sincere hope, as we begin a new year, that the new Congress will act swiftly and pass the 'Protect and Serve Act' (H.R. 3079) to address the national problem of ambushes and unprovoked attacks on our nation's law enforcement officers.”
The bill would establish a new criminal offense for “knowingly assaulting a law enforcement officer and causing bodily injury (or attempting to do so) in circumstances that affect interstate commerce.”
“Many will often look at this data and just see numbers. We MUST remember that they represent heroes—fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters,” said Yoes.