In 2021, 129 officers died in the line of duty, according to the FBI’s Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted database. Seventy-three of those officers were killed feloniously, almost entirely by firearms. However, law enforcement does not rank in the top ten most deadly professions in the US, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
The FBI collects data from law enforcement agencies in the US on assaults and deaths of officers. Deaths are broken down into two categories: felonious, meaning purposefully killed, and accidental. The available data only includes deaths occurring on the job. It doesn’t include work-related exposures that may lead to illness or death. COVID-19, 9/11-related illnesses, and suicides are all excluded from the data[1].
