Law Enforcement Facts

Key Data about the Profession  

• There are more than 900,000 sworn law enforcement officers now serving in the United States, which is the highest figure ever. About 12 percent of those are female.
  
  
• In 2008, there were an estimated 4.9 million violent crimes committed in the United States, as well as an estimated 16.3 million property crimes (according to the National Crime Victimization Survey conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics). Violent and property crime rates in 2008 remain at the lowest levels recorded since 1973, the first year that such data were collected. The rate of every major violent and property crime measured by BJS fell between 1999 and 2008. The overall violent crime rate fell 41 percent and the property crime rate declined by 32 percent during the last 10 years.
  
  
• Crime fighting has taken its toll. Since the first recorded police death in 1791, there have been over 19,000 law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. Currently, there are 19,298 names engraved on the walls of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial.
  
  
• A total of 1,794 law enforcement officers died in the line of duty during the past 10 years, an average of one death every 53 hours or 163 per year. There were 152 law enforcement officers killed in 2010.
  
  
• On average, over the last decade, there have been 59,069 assaults against law enforcement each year, resulting in 16,041 injuries.
  
  
• The 1970s were the deadliest decade in law enforcement history, when a total of 2,286 officers died, or an average of almost 229 each year. The deadliest year in law enforcement history was 1930, when 285 officers were killed. That figure dropped dramatically in the 1990s, to an average of 160 per year.
  
  
• The deadliest day in law enforcement history was September 11, 2001, when 72 officers were killed while responding to the terrorist attacks on America.
  
  
• New York City has lost more officers in the line of duty than any other department, with 693 deaths. Texas has lost 1,594 officers, more than any other state. The state with the fewest deaths is Vermont, with 21.
  
  
• There are 1,016 federal officers listed on the Memorial, as well as 571 correctional officers and 30 military law enforcement officers.
  
  
• There are 245 female officers listed on the Memorial; six female officers were killed in 2010.
  
  
• During the past ten years, more officers were killed feloniously on Friday than any other day of the week. The fewest number of felonious fatalities occurred on Sunday. Over the past decade, more officers were killed between 8:01 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. than during any other two-hour period.