Officers Assaulted
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The following information concerns duly sworn city, university and college, county, state, and tribal law enforcement officers who were assaulted in the line of duty in 2009 and met certain other criteria.
Overview
- The FBI collected assault data from 11,451 law enforcement agencies that employed 556,155 officers in 2009. These officers provided service to more than 243 million persons (79.4 percent of the Nation’s population). (Based on Table 65.)
- Law enforcement agencies reported that 57,268 officers were assaulted while performing their duties.
- The rate of officer assaults in 2009 was 10.3 assaults per 100 sworn officers.
More information about these topics is provided in Tables 65, 66, 70, and 71.
Injuries
- Of the officers assaulted, 26.2 percent sustained injuries.
- 27.6 percent of the officers who were attacked by persons using personal weapons (e.g., hands, fists, or feet) suffered injuries.
- 13.3 percent of the officers who were assaulted by persons with knives or other cutting instruments were injured.
- 8.8 percent of officers who were attacked by persons with firearms suffered injuries.
- 23.5 percent of officers who were attacked by persons with other dangerous weapons were injured.
More information about this topic is provided in Tables 65, 66, and 70.
Times of incidents
- The largest percentage of assaults on officers (16.0 percent) happened from
12:01 a.m. to 2 a.m.
- The smallest percentage of assaults on officers (2.4 percent) occurred from 6:01 a.m. to 8 a.m.
More information about this topic is provided in Table 67.
Circumstances
- Of all officers who were assaulted in 2009, the largest percentage (32.6 percent) were responding to disturbance calls (family quarrels, bar fights, etc.).
- 15.4 percent of the officers assaulted were attempting other arrests.
- 12.7 percent of the officers assaulted were handling or transporting prisoners.
More information about this topic is provided in Tables 68, 69, and 73.
Clearances
Law enforcement agencies can clear offenses by arrests or exceptional means (i.e., when law enforcement can identify the perpetrator but are unable to make an arrest due to circumstances beyond their control, such as the death or suicide of the subject).
- In 2009, law enforcement agencies cleared 89.2 percent of the 57,268 reported assaults on law enforcement officers.
- By type of circumstance, agencies cleared the greatest percentage (91.1) of assaults on officers attempting other arrests.
More information about this topic is provided in Table 68.
Assignments
- 61.9 percent of the officers who were assaulted were assigned to 1-officer vehicle patrols.
- 18.9 percent of the officers who were assaulted were assigned to 2-officer vehicle patrols.
- 4.8 percent of officers who were assaulted were assigned to detective duties or special assignments.
- 14.5 percent of officers were assigned to other duties when they were assaulted in the line of duty.
(Based on Table 69.)
Weapons
- In 2009, the majority of officers who were assaulted in the line of duty (81.4 percent) were attacked by persons using personal weapons.
- 3.5 percent of the officers were assaulted by persons with firearms.
- 1.5 percent of the officers were assaulted by persons with knives or other cutting instruments.
- 13.6 percent of the officers were assaulted by persons with other dangerous weapons.
More information about this topic is provided in Tables 70, 71, 72, and 73.
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