Facts & Figures

Line of Duty Facts & Figures:

  • Every 53.5 hours an officer is killed
  • 153 officers were killed nationwide in 2004
  • There are 164 line-of-duty deaths per year
  • There are over 57,000 assaults per year
  • There are over 17,000 injuries per year

There are more than 900,000 sworn law enforcement officers now serving in the United States, which is the highest figure ever. About 11.7 percent of those are female.

According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports, an estimated 1.16 million violent crimes occurred nationwide in 2013, a decrease of 4.4 percent from 2012.

Crime fighting has taken its toll. Since the first recorded police death in 1791, there have been more than 20,000 law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. Currently, there are 20,267 names engraved on the walls of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial.

A total of 1,501 law enforcement officers died in the line of duty during the past 10 years, an average of one death every 58 hours or 150 per year. There were 100 law enforcement officers killed in 2013.

On average, over the last decade, there have been 58,930 assaults against law enforcement each year, resulting in 15,404 injuries.

The 1920s were the deadliest decade in law enforcement history, when a total of 2,390 officers died, or an average of almost 239 each year. The deadliest year in law enforcement history was 1930, when 297 officers were killed. That figure dropped dramatically in the 1990s, to an average of 162 per year.

The deadliest day in law enforcement history was September 11, 2001, when 72 law enforcement officers were killed in the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center in New York City.

In 2005, 4 officers were killed in the line of duty in New Jersey.

484 law enforcement officers have died in the line of duty in New Jersey since 1854.

New Jersey’s first recorded line of duty death is Newark Police Officer Maxwell Badgley who died on October 23, 1854.

The top four New Jersey law enforcement agencies with the most line of duty deaths are:

  • New Jersey State Police has lost 63 troopers
  • NY/NJ Port Authority has lost 43 officers
  • Newark Police Department has lost 48 officers
  • Jersey City Police Department has lost 30 officers
  • In 2006, 3 officers were killed in the line of duty in New Jersey.

Source: National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, Washington D.C.