The number of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty dropped 17.2% in 2025 compared with the prior year, though non-fatal assaults against police have been rising since 2021, according to new data released Monday by the FBI.
In 2025, there were 53 law enforcement officers killed in felony acts, and all but 10 of them died from gunshot wounds. In 2024, by comparison, there were 64 law enforcement officers feloniously killed.
The majority of the law enforcement officers killed in 2025 were White males, and most of the incidents took place in the South, the area of the country that employs the largest number of police officers and has the largest population of the regions included in the FBI’s study.
Although the number of officers killed decreased by 11 in 2025, the overall trend of officers killed in the line of duty has been on the rise since 2021, the FBI found, noting that 258 officers were feloniously killed between 2021 through 2024. That figure represents more officers killed than any other consecutive four-year period.
The year with the highest number of deaths was 2021, when 71 officers were killed in the line of duty, according to the FBI’s data.
“In 2025, officers were assaulted at a rate of 13.8 assaults per 100 officers, which is the highest assault rate in the past 10 years,” the report found. “In 2025, the number of officers assaulted and injured by firearms was 445.”
