Preliminary
Statistics for Law Enforcement Officers Killed in 2003
Washington,
D.C. -- According to preliminary statistics released
today by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 52 law
enforcement officers across the Nation were feloniously
killed in the line of duty in 2003. The number of
slain officers is 4 fewer than the 56 officers killed
in 2002.
Geographically,
29 officers were killed in the South, 12 in the West,
8 in the Midwest, and 3 in the Northeast.
By
circumstance, 13 officers were killed during traffic
pursuits/stops, 11 in arrest situations, 10 while
responding to disturbance calls, 9 in ambush situations,
7 while investigating suspicious persons/circumstances,
and 2 while handling and transporting prisoners.
A
breakdown of the weapons involved in these slayings
revealed that in 2003 firearms continued to be the
weapon most frequently used in the killing of officers.
Forty-five of the 52 officers were killed with a firearm.
Of these 45 officers, 34 were killed with handguns,
10 with rifles, and 1 with a shotgun. Six officers
were killed with vehicles, and 1 was slain with a
police baton.
At
the time they were slain, 35 officers were wearing
body armor. Eleven of the 52 slain officers were killed
with their own weapons. Eleven officers' weapons were
stolen from the scene. Ten officers fired their weapons,
and 9 officers attempted to fire their weapons during
the 46 fatal incidents.
In
addition to the officers feloniously killed in 2003,
there were 81 separate incidents in which 82 law enforcement
officers were accidently killed in the performance
of their duties. This is 6 more than the 76 officers
accidentally killed during the previous year.
The
FBI will release final statistics and complete details
in the Uniform Crime Reporting Program's publication
Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted, 2003,
in the fall of this year.
This
press release is available on the FBI's Internet site
at www.fbi.gov.
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