FBI: Assaults on Law Enforcement Hit 10-Year High as Officer Deaths Decline
As the nation pauses to remember and honor law enforcement officers during National Police Week, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is out with a new report on incidents against law enforcement officers.
The report found an increase in assaults against law enforcement officers in the United States in 2025, even as the number of officers feloniously killed in the line of duty dropped.
The data was reported in the FBI’s Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted (LEOKA) Data Collection. It’s based on numbers reported to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program and is intended to help departments improve officer safety training and identify trends affecting policing nationwide.
The FBI is also encouraging broader agency participation in the UCR system, which can affect year-over-year reporting totals and trends.
2025 Report
In 2025, 53 officers were feloniously killed in the line of duty-- down 17 percent from 2024 and the lowest number since 2017. 43 of those deaths involved firearms making firearms the leading weapon used in such incidents. About half of the officers were killed while responding to unlawful or suspicious activity.
The South, the largest region with 16 states in this report, recorded the most incidents with 21, followed by 14 in the Midwest, 11 in the West, and seven in the Northeast. The South also had the highest rate of assaults against law enforcement officers.
Meanwhile– the report found the rate of assaults against officers rose from 2023 to 2025.
In 2025, there were more than 90,000 assaults on law enforcement officers reported, at a rate of 13.8 assaults per 100 officers– the highest assault rate in at least ten years.
But while overall assaults were up, the rate of assaults with a firearm fell to its lowest level since 2019. Many assaults occurred with personal weapons.
The majority of assaults also resulted in apparent minor injuries to the law enforcement officer.
The FBI ended the report by again urging agencies to report data to UCR.
“The partnerships between law enforcement agencies must be preserved and cultivated through sharing applicable data to keep law enforcement officers and the public safe from harm,” stated the FBI.
