Officers Assaulted
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This page provides information about duly sworn city, university and college, county, state, and tribal law enforcement officers who were assaulted in the line of duty in 2006 and met certain other criteria.
Overview
- The FBI collected assault data from 10,346 law enforcement agencies that provided service to nearly 223 million persons (74.4 percent of the Nation’s population). (Based on Table 63.)
- The participating law enforcement agencies that reported assault data to the FBI employed 495,270 sworn officers. Of these, 58,634 were assaulted while performing their duties.
- The rate of assaults was 11.8 per 100 sworn officers.
- There were 15,704 assaults on officers that resulted in injuries.
More information about these topics (including breakdowns of assaults on officers by region and population group) is included in Tables 63, 64, 66, 69, and 70.
Injuries
- 26.8 percent of the 58,634 officers assaulted suffered injuries.
- 28.5 percent of the officers who were attacked with personal weapons (e.g., hands, fists, or feet) sustained injuries.
- 13.5 percent of the officers who were attacked with knives or other cutting instruments suffered injuries.
- 10.2 percent of the officers who were attacked with firearms were injured.
- 23.5 percent of the officers who were attacked with other types of dangerous weapons experienced injuries.
More information about this topic is included in Tables 63, 64, and 68.
Times
- For the eighth year in a row, the largest percentage of assaults of officers (14.8 percent) occurred from 12:01 a.m.-2 a.m.
- In 2006, the smallest percentage of assaults of officers (2.6 percent) was from 6:01 a.m.-8 a.m.
More information about this topic is provided in Table 65.
Circumstances
- The largest percentage (30.9) of officers assaulted were responding to disturbance calls (family quarrels, bar fights, etc.).
- 12.2 percent of the officers assaulted were handling, transporting, or maintaining custody of prisoners.
- 11.1 percent of the officers assaulted were performing traffic stops or pursuits.
(Based on Tables 66, 67, and 71.)
Clearances
- Law enforcement agencies cleared 90.7 percent of the 58,634 assaults by arrests or exceptional means (i.e., when law enforcement could identify the perpetrator, but were unable to make an arrest due to circumstances beyond their control, such as the death or suicide of the subject).
- By type of circumstance, agencies cleared the greatest percentage (92.1) of assaults against officers who were responding to disturbance calls.
More information about this topic is provided in Table 66.
Assignments
- In 2006, 63.0 percent of the victim officers who were assaulted were assigned to 1-officer vehicle patrols.
- 16.7 percent of the victim officers were assigned to 2-officer vehicle patrols.
- 4.9 percent of the victim officers were performing detective or special assignment roles.
- 15.4 percent of the victim officers were performing other types of duties.
(Based on Table 67.)
Weapons
- The majority of officers assaulted (79.8 percent) were attacked with personal weapons such as hands, fists, or feet.
- 3.9 percent of the officers were assaulted with firearms.
- 1.8 percent of the officers were assaulted with knives or other cutting instruments.
- 14.5 percent of the officers assaulted were attacked with other types of dangerous weapons.
More information about this topic is provided in Tables 68, 69, 70, and 71.
A breakdown concerning the weapons used against officers who were assaulted with injuries resulting is provided in Table 68.
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