Nearly 50 law enforcement officers were feloniously killed in the first three quarters of 2022, and ambushes were one of the leading circumstances in those incidents, according to the FBI's preliminary report on line-of-duty deaths.
Overall, 92 law enforcement officers died on the job in the first nine months of the year, the FBI's Law Enforcement Officer Deaths reports states. Of those, 49 were felonious, and 43 were accidental.
The nine-month total for felonious law enforcement deaths is a 9.3 percent decrease during the same period in 2021. In that year, 54 officers killed were feloniously killed in the first nine months, and the total grew to 73 by year's end.
Firearms were used in 83.7 percent of last year's felonious deaths. And ambushes have seen a massive spike in 2022.
"The leading circumstances surrounding officers’ (felonious) deaths included activities related to ambushes on officers, investigative/enforcement activity, unprovoked attacks on officers, and response to disorderly/disturbance calls," the report states. "The 10 ambush attacks in 2022 are a 100 percent increase compared to the 5 ambush attacks in the same time period in 2021."
Among accidental deaths in 2022, motor vehicle accidents, pedestrian officers being struck by vehicles and airplane crashes accounted for the primary causes. Regionally, the most law enforcement deaths have happened in the southern region this year. Of the 47 deaths in that area, 24 were felonious, and 23 were accidental.
