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Home LEOKA 2011 Officers Assaulted

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 2011 and who met certain other criteria.

Overview

  • In 2011, the FBI collected assault data from 11,944 law enforcement agencies that employed 535,651 officers.  These officers provided service to more than 251 million persons, or 80.6 percent of the nation’s population.  (Based on Table 65.)
  • Law enforcement agencies reported that 54,774 officers were assaulted while performing their duties in 2011.
  • The rate of officer assaults in 2011 was 10.2 per 100 sworn officers.

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

Injuries

  • 26.6 percent of the officers assaulted sustained injuries.
  • 28.5 percent of the officers who were attacked with personal weapons (e.g., hands, fists, or feet) suffered injuries.
  • 15.7 percent of the officers who were assaulted with knives or other cutting instruments were injured.
  • 9.4 percent of officers who were attacked with firearms were injured.
  • 22.3 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 thirteenth consecutive year, the largest percentage of assaults on officers (15.3 percent) happened from 12:01 a.m. to 2 a.m. 
  • The smallest percentage of assaults on officers (2.6 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 2011:

  • 33.3 percent were responding to disturbance calls (family quarrels, bar fights, etc.).
  • 14.7 percent of the officers assaulted were attempting other arrests.
  • 12.6 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 arrest 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 2011, law enforcement agencies cleared 91.3 percent of the 54,774 reported assaults on law enforcement officers.
  • By type of circumstance, agencies cleared the greatest percentage of assaults (93.0 percent) on officers during robberies in progress/pursuing robbery suspects.

More information about this topic is provided in Table 68.

Assignments

  • 63.8 percent of the officers who were assaulted were assigned to 1-officer vehicle patrols.
  • 17.0 percent of the officers who were assaulted were assigned to 2-officer vehicle patrols.
  • 4.6 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 2011, 79.9 percent of officers who were assaulted in the line of duty were attacked with personal weapons (e.g., hands, fists, or feet).
  • 14.3 percent of the officers were assaulted with other dangerous weapons.
  • 4.0 percent of the officers were assaulted with firearms.
  • 1.8 percent of the officers were assaulted with knives or other cutting instruments.

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

Data Tables

Roll over table numbers for table titles.