The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Monday released preliminary statistics for law enforcement line of duty deaths in 2015.
Data from the FBI report show that 41 law enforcement officers were feloniously killed in the line of duty last year, a decrease of almost 20 percent when compared with the 51 officers killed in 2014.
Eight officers were killed while investigating suspicious persons, seven were engaged in tactical situations, six were conducting traffic stops and pursuits, four were killed as a result of ambushes, three were killed as a result of unprovoked attacks, three died from injuries inflicted while answering domestic disturbance calls, three were killed while answering robbery in progress calls or while in pursuit of robbery suspects, two were handling, transporting, or maintaining custody of prisoners, two were handling persons with mental illness, one sustained fatal injuries while performing an investigative activity, one was answering a burglary in progress call and one officer was killed while attempting another type of arrest.
Assailants used firearms in 38 of the 41 felonious deaths. Handguns were used in 29 incidents, rifles were used in seven incidents, a shotgun was used in one incident and in one incident the firearm type was not reported.
Three slain police officers were killed during incidents in which vehicles were used as weapons.
Thirty of the 41 killed officers were confirmed to be wearing body armor when the incident occurred. Six of the 41 slain officers fired their service weapons while six officers attempted to fire their weapons but were unable to.
Three officers had their weapons stolen and three officers were killed with their own weapons.
Forty-one officers died from injuries sustained in 38 separate incidents. Thirty-six of those incidents have been cleared by arrest or exceptional means.
An additional 45 officers were killed in 2015 in line-of-duty accidents, which include officer deaths that are found not to be willful and intentional.
The total equals the number of officers who were accidentally killed in 2014.
Twenty-nine of the officers died as a result of vehicle crashes, seven were struck by vehicles and four were fatally injured due to motorcycle crashes. Two of the 45 officers were killed from accidental shootings, one from an aircraft accident, one due to a fall and one from an all-terrain vehicle accident.
Of the 29 officers who died due to vehicle crashes, 18 of those officers were wearing seat belts. Four of the eight officers not wearing sea tbelts were ejected from their vehicles. Seat belt use was not reported for three of the officers who were killed in crashes.
Final statistics and complete details will be available in the Uniform Crime Reporting Program's publication, "Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted, 2015," which will be published on the FBI's website this fall.
