The FBI’s latest snapshot of violence against police is a study in contrasts. In a special report released May 11, 2026, the bureau said 53 law-enforcement officers were feloniously killed in 2025 while agencies reported roughly 90,178 assaults on officers, the highest assault rate in a decade. The numbers landed in the middle of Police Week, as departments and memorial groups gathered to honor those who died in the line of duty.
FBI Report in Brief
According to a press release from the FBI, the Uniform Crime Reporting Program released preliminary counts and a ten-year analysis of officer deaths and assaults for 2025. Firearms were the most commonly reported weapon in fatal incidents, and 49 offenders were identified in connection with the 53 felonious deaths. The bureau also published its Law Enforcement Employee Counts alongside the special report so agencies can size up staffing levels and safety needs.
CBS News reported that all but 10 of the 53 felonious deaths involved gunshot wounds, a reminder of how dominant firearms remain in deadly encounters with police. Coverage also highlighted that the decline in felonious deaths is paired with a longer-term rise in nonfatal assaults that has been building since 2021.
Assaults Hit a Decade High
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer shows agencies reported 90,178 officer assaults in 2025, which works out to 13.8 assaults per 100 officers. That is the highest assault rate recorded in the past ten years. The same report notes that the number of officers assaulted and injured by firearms dropped from a 2023 peak of 517 to 445 in 2025. Those nonfatal incidents, spread across departments of every size, are what drive the elevated assault rate even as fatal shootings of officers decline.
Regional Patterns and Offender Profiles
Across the ten-year window the FBI examined, the South recorded the most line-of-duty deaths. Even so, the region saw a 25 percent drop in felonious officer deaths in 2025 compared with 2024. The report’s tables show that offenders in 2025 were overwhelmingly male, at 95.7 percent, and that nearly two-thirds were reported as white. The special report lays out detailed tables and offender breakdowns for agencies, policymakers and researchers who want to dig into the numbers.
What Agencies and Memorial Groups Say
Groups that track line-of-duty deaths caution that totals can shift based on counting rules and timing. The Officer Down Memorial Page running tally for 2025 has shown a notably low total even as the FBI’s Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted program, known as LEOKA, tracks felonious deaths in a separate category. Advocates say that split illustrates the gap between broader “line-of-duty” counts and the narrower felonious-death figures used in FBI tables. Those organizations have turned the 2025 data into a fresh push for officer safety training and vehicle-safety measures.
In a Facebook post, the FBI’s Dallas field office shared the special report during Police Week and wrote, “this police week we remember and honor our law enforcement partners who gave their lives in the line of duty.” The office linked directly to the full special report in the Crime Data Explorer for anyone who wants to pore over the underlying tables.
