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 2013 and who met certain other criteria.

Overview

In 2013, the FBI collected assault data from 11,468 law enforcement agencies that employed 533,895 officers. These officers provided service to more than 247 million persons, or 78.2 percent of the nation’s population.

Law enforcement agencies reported that 49,851 officers were assaulted while performing their duties in 2013.

The rate of officer assaults in 2013 was 9.3 per 100 sworn officers.

More information about these topics is provided in Tables 65, 66, 70, and 71.

Injuries

Of the 49,851 officers who were assaulted in 2013, 14,565 (29.2 percent) sustained injuries.

31.0 percent of the officers who were attacked with personal weapons (e.g., hands, fists, or feet) suffered injuries.

14.6 percent of the officers who were assaulted with knives or other cutting instruments were injured.

10.9 percent of officers who were attacked with firearms were injured.

27.0 percent of officers who were attacked with other dangerous weapons were injured.

More information about this topic is provided in Tables 65, 66, and 70.

Times of incidents

For the fifteenth consecutive year, the largest percentage of assaults on officers (15.1 percent) happened from 12:01 a.m. to 2 a.m.

The smallest percentage of assaults on officers (2.5 percent) occurred between 6:01 a.m. and 8 a.m.

More information about this topic is provided in Table 67.

Circumstances

Of all officers who were assaulted in 2013:

31.2 percent were responding to disturbance calls (family quarrels, bar fights, etc.).

16.3 percent were attempting other arrests.

12.8 percent were handling, transporting, or maintaining custody of prisoners.

More information about this topic is provided in Tables 68, 69, and 73.

Clearances

Law enforcement agencies can clear offenses by arrest or exceptional means (i.e., when they 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 2013, law enforcement agencies cleared 91.6 percent of the 49,851 reported assaults on law enforcement officers.

By type of circumstance, agencies cleared the greatest percentage of assaults (93.1 percent) on officers who were responding to reports of civil disorder (mass disobedience, riot, etc.).

Agencies reported that they cleared 92.9 percent of the 15,531 assaults on officers who were responding to disturbance calls.

More information about this topic is provided in Table 68.

Assignments

62.7 percent of the officers who were assaulted were assigned to 1-officer vehicle patrols.

17.3 percent of the officers who were assaulted were assigned to 2-officer vehicle patrols.

4.4 percent of officers who were assaulted were assigned to detective duties or special assignments.

15.6 percent of officers were assigned to other duties when they were assaulted in the line of duty.

More information about this topic is provided in Table 69.

Weapons

In 2013, 79.8 percent of officers who were assaulted in the line of duty were attacked with personal weapons (e.g., hands, fists, or feet).

4.5 percent of the officers were assaulted with firearms.

1.8 percent of the officers were assaulted with knives or other cutting instruments.

13.9 percent of the officers were assaulted with other dangerous weapons.

More information about this topic is provided in Tables 70, 71, 72, and 73.