FBI Data Shows Continued Rise of Line-of-Duty Deaths, Majority from COVID-19

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), there have been 279 line-of-duty deaths during the first nine months of 2021 – COVID-19 is responsible for 169 deaths out of the 183 deaths related to medical conditions. According to the FBI’s report, 43 line-of-duty deaths were caused by gunfire. The Officer Down Memorial Page (ODMP) reported 245 law enforcement deaths from COVID-19 in 2020, including federal law enforcement officers.

The FBI report indicates nearly four times as many law enforcement officers died from contracting COVID-19 in the line of duty as from guns in the first nine months of 2021.

While no national statistics exist on the vaccination rate for first responders, the Wall Street Journal found that police and fire departments across the country have reported rates far below the national average of 77 percent for adults with at least one dose.

Related to first responders and COVID-19, on Thursday morning, the President signed into law Protecting America’s First Responders Act, a Public Safety Officers' Benefits (PSOB) benefits reform bill. Among other things, the bill extends for two years the presumption that officers who die or are disabled because of COVID-19 contracted the virus while on duty.

The FBI's also reports 60,105 law enforcement officers were assaulted in 2020, with 31 percent reporting some type of injury – a 7.2 percent increase from 2019, and more than half of that increase was related to confrontations with protesters.

Regardless of the reason for the violence against them in 2020[NC1] [SS2] , the trend of officers killed in the line of duty in 2021 has reached its highest rate in five years. Between January 1 and October 12, 2021, felonious acts caused the death of 59 officers compared to 39 during the same period last year. Comparatively, assault injuries to police officers only increased slightly in 2020, from 3.6 assaults per 100 officers in 2019 to 3.7 in 2019. Yet, these rates pale in comparison to those in the 1990s, when there were more than 13 assaults per 100 officers nationwide.

“Law enforcement officers these days are dealing with a whole range of threats at a time when, in many ways, the job is more dangerous than ever. Whether it’s responding to some volatile domestic violence call, or a traffic stop or executing a search warrant or arrest, the dangers are very real and constant,” stated FBI Director Christopher Wray, “What we’re seeing this year is an alarming uptick in violence against law enforcement, and it’s something that deserves way more attention than it’s getting.”

An overall spike in homicides nationwide coincides with the increase in police killings. FEDagent reported previously that last year saw the largest homicide increase ever since the FBI started collecting figures in the 1960s, with a nearly 30% increase. 

President Biden will also sign the Law Enforcement Officer and Federal Employee Protection Act and the Confidentiality Opportunities for Peer Support (COPS) Counseling Act, legislation that clarify federal criminal law ambiguities and ensure anonymous mental health and peer support services for federal law enforcement.

“The Zapata-Avila Act represents a hard-fought effort to rectify injustice and ensure the protection of federal employees serving abroad,” stated Executive Director Chad Hooper of the Professional Managers Association (PMA) following the signing, “This Act ensures the U.S. government can pursue justice against violent actors who harm federal employees stationed abroad.”