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Home LEOKA 2018 Topic Pages Federal Officers Killed and Assaulted

Federal Officers Killed and Assaulted

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This page provides information regarding federal law enforcement officers who were killed or assaulted in the line of duty in 2018 and who met the appropriate criteria.

Overview

In 2018, 2 federal law enforcement officers were killed and a total of 1,766 were nonfatally assaulted. Of the 1,766 officers who were nonfatally assaulted, 374 were reported as being injured. (See Tables 73 and 74.) By department:

  • The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employed 751 of the federal officers who were assaulted, and 219 of these officers were injured. (See Table 73 for the following bulleted statistics.)
  • The U.S. Department of the Interior employed 689 of the officers who were assaulted; 83 of these officers were injured. (See Table 73.)
  • The U.S. Department of Justice employed 271 of the officers who were assaulted. Two of these officers were killed, and 52 were nonfatally injured. (See Table 73.)
  • The U.S. Capitol Police employed 18 officers who were assaulted, and of these, 3 officers were injured. (See Table 73.)
  • The U.S. Department of Defense employed 16 of the officers who were assaulted, and 5 of these officers were injured. (See Table 73.)
  • The U.S. Postal Service employed 11 officers who were assaulted, and 9 of these officers were injured. (See Table 73.)
  • The U.S. Department of Agriculture employed 8 officers who were assaulted, and none of these officers were injured. (See Table 73.)
  • The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services employed 3 officers who were assaulted, all of whom were injured. (See Table 73.)
  • The U.S. Department of the Treasury employed 1 officer who was assaulted but not injured. (See Table 73.)

Weapons (See Table 74.)

  • 797 federal officers were assaulted with personal weapons such as hands, fists, or feet, and 246 officers were injured during these assaults.
  • 133 officers were assaulted with firearms, resulting in 2 officers being killed and
  • 11 officers being nonfatally injured.
  • 106 federal officers were assaulted with vehicles; of these, 26 officers suffered injuries.
  • 57 officers were assaulted with knives or other cutting instruments resulting in 4 officers being injured.
  • 12 officers were assaulted with blunt instruments resulting in 4 officers being injured.
  • 663 officers were assaulted with various other types of weapons resulting in 83 officers being injured.

Type of activity (See Table 78.)

  • 853 of the federal officers assaulted in 2018 were on patrol or guard duty when they were assaulted.
  • 451 officers were assaulted while attempting arrests or serving summonses.
  • 219 officers were assaulted while conducting investigations or searches.
  • 120 officers were assaulted while maintaining custody of prisoners.
  • 22 officers were assaulted while on court duty.
  • 15 officers were assigned to office duty when they were assaulted.
  • 14 officers were on protection duty at the time of the assaults.
  • 74 officers were assigned to other duties when assaulted.

Regional and outlying area breakdowns (See Table 76.)

Of the federal law enforcement officers who were assaulted in 2018:

  • 893 officers were in the West.
  • 476 officers were in the South.
  • 307 officers were in the Midwest.
  • 77 officers were in the Northeast.
  • 6 officers were in foreign locations.
    • 2 officers were in Doula, Cameroon. 
    • 1 officer was in Costa Rica. 
    • 1 officer was in Jamaica. 
    • 1 officer was in Mexico. 
    • 1 officer was in Santo Domingo.
  • 4 officers were in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
  • 2 officers were in Puerto Rico.
  • The National Park Service did not provide location data for 3 of its victim officers.

Dispositional information

  • 1,049 alleged assailants were identified in connection with the 1,768 assaults on federal officers. (See Table 71.)
  • Of the 1,049 offenders, dispositional information was reported for 187 of them. (See Table 79.)
    • 84 of the offenders were awaiting trial.
    • 56 were found guilty. 
    • 26 offenders’ cases were pending prosecutive opinion. 
    • 8 offenders’ prosecutions were declined. 
    • 7 offenders are deceased. 
    • 5 offenders were found not guilty or the charges were dismissed. 
    • 1 offender was declared incompetent to stand trial.

Five-year totals

From 2014 through 2018, there were 7,749 federal officers assaulted; 4 of these officers were killed. (See Table 74.)

All 4 of the officers killed were with the U.S. Department of Justice and were employed by the U.S. Marshals Service. One officer was killed in 2015, another in 2016, and 2 officers were killed in 2018. (See Table 73.)

Data Tables

Roll over table numbers for table titles.

Table 71
Table 72
Table 73
Table 74
Table 75
Table 76
Table 77
Table 78
Table 79