(Trends Wide) — More than 60,000 law enforcement officers were assaulted in the line of duty last year, 7.2% more than in 2019, according to a report released Monday by the FBI.
The FBI also revealed that about 30% of the officers suffered injuries.
In another report released in May, the agency reported that 93 officers died in the line of duty last year, including 46 deaths from criminal assaults. That figure compares with 48 officers killed in criminal assaults and 41 killed in accidents in 2019.
The FBI report does not include deaths from covid-19.
However, data compiled by the Officer Down Memorial page shows that the pandemic has been the leading cause of death among police officers in the past two years.
In 2020 there were 245 deaths from covid-19 among police officers. And the figure so far this year is 233, according to that site.
The FBI report says that nearly a third of assaults in 2020 occurred when officers responded to a disturbance, such as a family fight or a bar fight, while 16.1% occurred during other arrests and 12, 6% occurred while transporting or maintaining custody of the prisoners.
The report is based on attacks reported to the FBI by 9,895 law enforcement agencies.