Assaults on American Police Officers Surge to Decade High Despite Significant Drop in Overall Crime

The FBI is launching an in-depth behavioral study to understand why there’s a rise in officer attacks between 2021 and 2024.

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A Baltimore Police officer hangs police tape at the site of a recent mass shooting in a Baltimore neighborhood. Nathan Howard/Getty Images

Police officers across America are facing a surge of violent attacks, with assaults against them reaching their highest levels in over a decade, according to newly released FBI data.

New figures compiled for the bureau’s “2024 Reported Crimes in the Nation” released on Tuesday underscore a troubling trend of anti-law enforcement violence. Approximately 85,730 peace-keeping officers were assaulted — up from the significantly lower number of 54,448 reported assaults in 2015. A total of 64 officers were killed while on the job last year.

“Between 2021 and 2024, we had 258 law enforcement officers feloniously killed in the line of duty,” an FBI official said to reporters on a briefing call, adding that the bureau is working on a deeper study in an attempt to uncover the reason behind the spike.

“It’s going to be a longer study, because we are doing a real, in-depth behavioral analysis study of why these are occurring,” the official said.

Yet, as officers across America are facing unprecedented danger, the data on other serious crimes tells a different story.

Violent crime plummeted 4.5 percent in 2024 while property crimes crashed by more than 8 percent. Murder rates plunged by nearly 15 percent, while robberies tumbled 9 percent to near their lowest point in two decades.

The findings contradict statements made by President Trump during his campaign, where he contended that crime rates had increased significantly and insisted that current crime levels were unprecedented.

“The crime is so out of control in our country,” said during a campaign event last August in Michigan. “I mean, you have cities — I will say this, the top 25, almost all are run by Democrats, and they have very similar policies. It’s just insane.”

“But you can’t walk across the street to get a loaf of bread. You get shot. You get mugged. You get raped, you get whatever it may be. And you’ve seen it and I’ve seen it, and it’s time for a change.”


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