Introduction.

This publication addresses the number of law enforcement officers killed and assaulted in the line of duty through the presentation of tables, figures, and narrative comments. The Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted program counts victim officers, not the number of incidents or weapons used. The program considers any part of the body that can be employed as a weapon--hands, fists, feet, etc.--as personal weapons. Furthermore, law enforcement agencies report the number of officers killed and the number assaulted using different methodologies. Consequently, users of this publication are urged to exercise care when attempting to compare data presented about law enforcement officers killed and those officers who were assaulted since these data are drawn from two different databases. In addition, care should be taken in any direct comparison between data in this edition of Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted and previous editions of the book because statistics are updated annually.