The FBI updated its Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted (LEOKA) dataset on April 20, 2026, adding the most recent officer safety and assault statistics to a record series that the bureau has maintained since 1937. The updated dataset covers 2020 to the present and is accessible through the FBI's Crime Data Explorer.
2024 Officer Deaths: Numbers and Breakdown
A total of 107 law enforcement officers died in the line of duty in 2024, according to the updated dataset. Of those, 64 were classified as felonious killings — approximately 60% of the total. The remaining deaths, roughly 40%, were classified as accidental. Firearms were the primary weapon used in the felonious killings recorded that year.
The 2024 toll was 13 deaths higher than the 2023 figure. That increase is notable against a long-term backdrop of significant fluctuation. Since 1996, annual officer deaths have ranged from a low of 76 in 2013 to a high of 146 in 2001. The 2024 count of 107 represents a 26.7% decrease from that 2001 peak, according to the dataset.
What LEOKA Collects and How It Is Managed
The LEOKA program collects data on officers feloniously or accidentally killed and on those assaulted while performing their duties. Data collection is managed through the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program. The program has gathered officer fatality data since 1937; assault statistics were added in 1960.
For each incident involving a felonious killing, the program produces a detailed summary. Those summaries are paired with demographic profiles of the victim officers — including age, sex, race, and years of experience — and with data on the assailants involved, covering age, sex, race, criminal history, and the number of suspects. That pairing is what makes the dataset useful for tactical analysis, not just headline counts.
The FBI encourages participating agencies to report assault-with-injury incidents specifically, because those records supply more granular tactical data than aggregate totals alone. Agencies that report consistently give the bureau a clearer picture of the circumstances surrounding assaults — information that feeds directly into officer safety protocol evaluations.
Accessing the Dataset Through the Crime Data Explorer
The Crime Data Explorer is the primary portal for accessing current LEOKA statistics, according to the FBI. Agencies, researchers, and command staff can pull figures covering 2020 through the present. The April 20, 2026 update ensures that the Explorer reflects the most recent trends in officer safety and assault patterns, the dataset record states.
The LEOKA dataset is described as a critical resource for evaluating the effectiveness of current officer safety protocols and equipment. Command staff working on use-of-force policy, patrol deployment, or equipment procurement can draw on the demographic and incident-level detail the dataset provides — detail that aggregate annual tallies do not supply on their own.
Long-Term Trends and What the Data Shows
The year-over-year increase from 2023 to 2024 — 13 additional deaths — lands inside a pattern of significant annual fluctuation that the FBI's data has recorded since at least 1996. The single-year swing between a low of 76 deaths in 2013 and a high of 146 in 2001 illustrates how sharply the numbers can move. The 26.7% reduction from the 2001 peak through 2024 reflects a long-run downward trend, even as individual years move in either direction.
The split between felonious and accidental deaths matters for how agencies respond. In 2024, 64 of the 107 deaths were felonious. That means the majority of line-of-duty deaths that year involved deliberate acts — and that firearms drove most of those acts. The roughly 43 accidental deaths that make up the remaining 40% represent a separate category of risk, one that training and equipment choices address differently than the threat of armed assault.
Assault data in the LEOKA program adds another layer. Officers who are assaulted and injured but survive do not appear in fatality counts, yet those incidents carry tactical information about where, how, and by whom officers are attacked. The FBI's push to get participating agencies to report assault-with-injury incidents reflects the program's intent to capture that information systematically, not just when an assault ends in a death.
The dataset update positions the FBI's published record as current through the most recent reporting cycle, giving law enforcement administrators and policymakers access to 2024 figures alongside historical data going back to 2020 in the current dataset window.
