Report: 194 officers murdered between 2021 and 2023, more than in any other three-year period in the last two decades

Violence committed against police authorities in the last three years far exceeds that of any other triennium in the last two decades. According to the report "Officers Killed and Assaulted in the Line of Duty, 2023 Special Report" published by the FBI, between 2021 and 2023, 194 police officers or other members of law enforcement were murdered while on duty (73 in 2021, 61 in 2022 and 60 in 2023).

Judging only the data from 2023, the South region was where the most officers were killed (20), followed by the Midwest (16), the West (12) and, finally, the Northeast (10). In Puerto Rico and other territories, there were two.

On the other hand, the report also reveals that last year alone, 79,091 officers were attacked, the highest number in the last 10 years. The majority of attacks occurred when authorities were responding to an alert about attacks against civilians (6,783 incidents) and in operations against drug trafficking (4,879). The number of authorities who were injured by firearms also increased (466).

In the first four months of 2024, 19 officers have been killed in the line of duty (one more than in the same period last year), while 21 have died from accidental causes during working hours (13 more than from January to April 2023), according to data recently published. One of the victims was Officer Jonathan Diller, who was killed on March 25 while conducting a routine traffic stop.