Law Enforcement Statistics and Facts

1) There are approximately 740,000 sworn law enforcement officers now serving in the United States. About 10 percent of them are female.

2) Each year there are approximately 33 million crimes committed in the United States, an average of one crime every two seconds.

3) Crime fighting has taken its toll. Since the first recorded police death in 1794, there have been more than 14,000 law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty.

4) A total of 1,533 law enforcement officers died in the line of duty during the last 10 years, an average of one death every 58 hours or 153 per year. There were 130 police deaths in 1999.

5) On average, more than 65,000 law enforcement officers are assaulted each year and some 23,000 are injured annually.

6) The deadliest year in law enforcement history was 1974 when 268 officers were killed. The deadliest decade was the 1970's when a total of 2,182 officers died, or 218 each year. That figure has dropped dramatically in the 1990's to 152 per year.

7) The deadliest day in law enforcement history was September 11, 2001, when eighty six New York City police officers were killed at the World Trade Center.

8) New York City has lost more officers in the line of duty than any other department, with 526 deaths. California has lost 1,176 officers, more than any other state. The state with the fewest deaths is Vermont, with 15.

9) The average age of the officers killed during the past century was 38 and the average length of service was about eight years. Pulaski County (MO) Night Marshal Dotson “Pop” Sutton, 80, was the oldest officer to die in the line of duty. He was struck by a vehicle while on patrol in 1952. The youngest officers, seven of them, were all 19 years old when they died. In 1919, Thomas Knevet, a Hartford (CT) police officer, was also struck by a vehicle and killed. He had worked in law enforcement for 44 years, making him the longest serving officer ever to die in the line of duty.

10) There has been 102 female officers killed since 1900, only seven of whom were killed prior to 1970.

11) More officers have been killed in January (1,318) and December (1,309) than during any other months of the year.

12) During the last 10 years, more officers were killed on Fridays than any other day of the week. The fewest number of fatalities occurred on Sundays.

13) More officers were killed between 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. than during any other two-hour period over the past decade.

14) Roughly 61% of the officers killed this past century were feloniously assaulted by criminals, and 39% died in accidental circumstances (e.g., automobile accidents, aircraft accidents, shooting accidents, etc.). However, during each of the past five years (including 2000) that trend has reversed itself with more accidental deaths than felonious, as shown in appendix B. Roughly 5% of the officers who died over the past 100 years were killed taking law enforcement action while in an off duty capacity.

15) Automobile accidents were the second-leading cause of police fatalities by the end of the century, resulting in more than 2,000 deaths (15% of all deaths). Nearly 1,000 more officers (7% of all deaths) were struck and killed by passing motorists while outside of their own vehicles, making this category the fourth-leading cause of law enforcement deaths during the past 100 years. About 315 of these vehicle-related deaths were caused by drunk drivers.

16) During the early part of the past century, the second leading cause of police deaths were motorcycle accidents. In fact, from 1910 through 1939, there was a total of 485 officers killed in motorcycle accidents, compared to 323 officers who died in automobile accidents. As law enforcement began to increasingly rely more and more on the automobile, motorcycle deaths declined during the latter half of the century, but still accounted for more than 1,000 officer fatalities during the century (7% of all deaths). Motorcycle accidents ended the century as the third-leading cause of police deaths.

17) During the past century more officers, by far, were killed by firearms than by any other single cause. Nearly 7,000 officers were shot to death, accounting for about 49 percent of all law enforcement fatalities over the past 100 years. The deadliest shootout during that period occurred on January 2, 1932, in Springfield (MO). A suspected cop killer was rumored to be hiding at a house just outside of town. Greene County (MO) Sheriff Marcell C. Hendrix took nine officers with him to make the arrest. The officers were met with a hail of gunfire and six officers, including Sheriff Hendrix, were killed.

18) Largely due to the increased use of soft body armor, better training and improved equipment, police deaths have been on the decline for the past two decades. During the 1980’s we averaged 187 officer fatalities each year, and in the 1990’s we averaged 153. At the same time that deaths were declining, the number of law enforcement officers in our nation grew substantially from roughly 315,000 officers in 1970 to an estimated 740,000 serving today.
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Obviously Police & Security officers have their work cut out for them. The statistics above are from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, you can visit their site by clicking here. 
Hometown Heroes
                                                 Firefighters Statistics

Firefighters are three and one-half times more likely to die on the job than the average American worker according to a study issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. From  1992 to 1997 firefighters died at a rate of 16.5 per 100,000 employed. This compares to 4.7 per 100,000 employed for all workers. Firefighter death rates also exceeded that of police officers during the same period. Police officers average 14.2 deaths per 100,000 employed. The report also notes that because firefighters work in teams, there is a high propensity for multiple fatalities from a single incident.  (Source Bureau of Labor Statistics)

Statistics for 1998: (Source Bureau of Labor Statistics)
87,500 U.S. Firefighters injured in the line of duty.

4,830 had to be hospitalized an increase of 1.7%.

Estimated that 12,800 were exposed to infectious diseases, hepatitis and HIV.

49.2% or 43,080 Injuries occurred on the fire ground.

18.7% or 16,335 injuries occurred during other on duty activities.

91 Firefighters died in the line of duty.

40 firefighters were killed on the fire ground.

17 were killed while responding to incidents.

15 firefighters died at non-fire emergencies

11 firefighters died during training activities.

8 firefighters died during non-emergency related activities
This site is dedicated to the men and women who put their lives on the line everyday to protect the people of America. It is a dangerous and often thankless job, but they do it without thinking twice. To these people, American citizens everywhere owe their lives.

(Please check back often, more updates coming soon!)