Fatal and non-fatal violence to police officers during 2012–2022

In 2022, there were 116 police officer fatalities. Homicides accounted for 50 (43.1 percent) of the fatalities to officers. There were 123 government police officer fatalities in 2021 (data are not available for the combination of private and government fatalities in 2021), and 52.0 percent of the fatalities were from homicides (64).

Over the 2-year 2021-2022 period, there were 6,680 non-fatal injuries to police officers involving an assault (intentional injury by another person) that required at least 1 day away from work and/or job transfer or restriction (DART). The annualized incidence rate of these cases was 58.0 per 10,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) workers, and the median number of days away from work, job transfer, or restriction was 2 weeks.

Eighty-three percent (5,560) of these assault cases involved at least 1 day away from work at an annualized incidence rate of 48.3 cases per 10,000 FTE workers. These officers required a median of 1 week away from work to recover.

Cases involving only days of job transfer or restriction (1,120) had an annualized incidence rate of 9.7 per 10,000 FTE workers and a median of more than 3 weeks of job transfer or restriction. 

These data are from the Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities program. To learn more, see “Employer-Reported Workplace Injuries and Illnesses, 2021-2022” and "Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries Summary, 2022.”