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 Section I — Law Enforcement Officers Feloniously Killed

Methodology

Section I contains statistics on felonious and accidental deaths of duly sworn local, state, and federal law enforcement officers meeting the following criteria: they are working in an official capacity, they have full arrest powers, they wear a badge (ordinarily), they carry a firearm (ordinarily), and they are paid from governmental funds set aside specifically for payment of sworn law enforcement representatives.

The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program collects data on officers' deaths from several sources. First, local and state law enforcement agencies participating in the UCR Program notify the national Program of duty-related deaths. Contributors submit preliminary data about any officer killed in the line of duty within their jurisdictions. In addition, FBI field divisions and legal attache offices report such incidents occurring in the United States and its territories, as well as those incidents in which a United States law enforcement officer dies while assigned to duties in another country. Finally, the Bureau of Justice Assistance, administrator of the Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program, maintains contact throughout the year, supplying the national UCR Program with information regarding officers whose survivors have received benefits. This threefold reporting procedure ensures the validity and completeness of the data.

When the national Program receives notification of a line-of-duty death, the staff sends inquiries through FBI field divisions to the victim officer's employing agency to obtain additional details concerning the circumstances surrounding the incident. Additionally, the national staff furnish the agency with information concerning two federal programs that provide benefits to survivors of federal and nonfederal law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. The national Program staff also obtain pertinent criminal history data from the FBI's Interstate Identification Index concerning individuals identified in connection with felonious killings.

The number of officers killed on September 11, 2001, are not included in this publication. Because of the unique nature of the data from this singular event, including these extreme values in rate or trend data would skew data measurements in the UCR Program's analysis.

Overview

During 2002, a total of 56 law enforcement officers were feloniously killed in 26 states and the United States Territory of Puerto Rico. City police departments employed 27 of the fallen officers; county police and sheriff's offices employed 19 officers; state agencies employed 4 of the victims; and federal agencies employed 2. Puerto Rico employed 4 of the victim officers, all of whom were city law enforcement officers. (See Table 27.) Fifty-three separate incidents, one of which occurred in 1993, a second which occurred in 1999, and a third which occurred in 2000, claimed the lives of the 56 officers in 2002. Forty-seven of these incidents were cleared by arrests or by exceptional means.

The 56 officers slain in 2002 were 14 fewer than the 70 fatalities in 2001. Five- and 10-year comparisons show that the number of officers killed in 2002 were 5 fewer than the 61 officers murdered in 1998 and 14 fewer than the 70 officers feloniously slain in 1993. (Based on Table 1.)

Victims

The average age of the 56 law enforcement officers feloniously killed in 2002 was 37. One officer was under the age of 25, and 11 were 25 to 30 years of age. Twenty-eight victim officers were 31 to 40 years old, and 16 were over 40 years in age. (See Table 5.) Forty-eight of the slain officers were male, and 8 were female. Fifty-one officers were white, 4 were black, and 1 was Asian/Pacific Islander. (See Table 6.)

On average, officers feloniously killed in 2002 had 10 years of service. Twelve officers had 1 to 4 years of service, 20 officers had 5 to 10 years of experience, and 23 officers had served over 10 years in law enforcement. Law enforcement experience was not reported for 1 victim. (See Table 7.)

Circumstances Surrounding Deaths

The data collected on the circumstances surrounding officers' deaths in 2002 revealed that 15 were slain in ambush situations, 10 were killed during traffic pursuits or stops, and 10 were killed during arrest situations. A further breakdown of the arrest situations showed that 4 officers were killed by robbery suspects, 3 were involved in drug-related matters, and 3 officers were attempting other arrests. Nine law enforcement officers were slain while answering disturbance calls, 5 of which involved family quarrels and 4 of which involved bar fights, person with firearm, etc. Eight officers were investigating suspicious persons or circumstances at the time of their deaths, and 4 officers were slain by mentally deranged assailants. (See Table 20.)

From 1993 through 2002, 32.2 percent of the officers feloniously killed were involved in arrest situations (burglary or robbery investigations, drug-related matters, etc.), 16.5 percent were investigating suspicious persons or circumstances, and 15.4 percent were responding to disturbance calls. Additionally, 15.3 percent of the fallen officers were involved in traffic pursuits or stops, and 15.1 percent were killed in ambush situations. Data also showed that 3.1 percent of the victim officers Rh