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National Center for the Prevention of Violence Against the Police

Responding to the need for critical information on emerging trends involving felonious assaults directed at law enforcement, the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), in partnership with the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance, has established the National Center for the Prevention of Violence Against the Police. The mission of the NationalCenter is to prevent felonious assaults against law enforcement through the timely development and dissemination of actionable information within the wider context of IACP’s officer safety initiatives.

How Can I Get Involved?

The National Center is currently seeking the following information which will be kept confidential:

  • Post-incident protocol currently employed by your agency
  • Post-incident reports your agency is willing to share
  •  Line of duty death and serious injury data

Preventing Line of Duty Deaths: A Chief’s Duty

Preventing Line of Duty Deaths: A Chief’s DutyThis agency self assessment tool is designed to help law enforcement leaders evaluate their agency’s efforts to fully address the safety needs of their officers. Use this tool to proactively examine the range of critical officer safety strategies and determine areas where your agency can take action to improve. When taken together, the infrastructure improvements, systemic policies and strategies covered by this checklist will enhance officer safety and potentially prevent acts of violence against law enforcement.

Use the resource identified for each topic to help you address these issues within your agency and use the checklist on the back page to map your progress.

For more information on these strategies and additional resources, statistics, and facts please refer to the links below:

Infrastructure Strategies Policies

Law Enforcement Officers Killed by Felonious Assault in 2011

Law Enforcement Officers Killed by Felonious Assault in 2011This report focuses on prevention through awareness by bringing together brief summaries of each line-of-duty death from felonious assaults in 2011. It is the hope of the IACP’s National Center that this document helps facilitate this process and highlights the necessity for law enforcement to rely on their training and remain vigilant when interacting with the public.

 

 

 

 

Existing Data on Officer Injuries & Line of Duty Deaths

BJA’s Public Safety Officers’ Benefits Program (PSOB)
CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention & Control (NCIPC)
CDC’s National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS)
DOT’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
FBI’s Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted (LEOKA)
National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF)
The Officer Down Memorial Page, Inc.

Data Source Table

This table represents the data collection and review efforts of the National Center to date. Each of these identified partners have played an integral role in project development through collaboration, guidance, and support. This review of the available felonious and accidental line of duty death data, as well as more general use of force information, is intended to be a resource to facilitate the identification and utilization of this data. The table also provides additional information in several key areas including:

  • Timeliness of data currently available
  • Types of incidents included in collection process
  • Where particular gaps in the information may occur
  • An assessment of strengths and weaknesses

Data Source Table File (Printable PDF)

Data Source Data Type Data Coverage Types of Incidents Included Availability Level of Aggregation Timeliness Strengths Data Source
BJA Public Safety Officers Benefits Program (PSOB) Quantitative & Qualitative National: Includes persons in U.S. submitting claims for benefits program Deaths that are the direct and proximate result of traumatic injury sustained in the line of duty or certain eligible heart attacks or strokes. Eligibility reserved for law enforcement officers, firefighters, and first responders killed or catastrophically disabled in the line of duty. Can be filled out online. Data is maintained in paper form or electronic application format. Database that is in place is very limited at this time. Incident-level Current – based on timeliness of response from agency Reach out to all agencies that have LODD and collect information from each. BJA Public Safety Officers Benefits Program (PSOB)
CDC National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) Quantitative & Qualitative Collected in 18 states Homicides, suicides, and legal intervention deaths Public use state-level data is available online. The restricted data that contains confidential info can be requested from VDRS states. We are in the process of obtaining agreements with each state to receive the restricted data. Incident-level 2003-2009 currently available but varies by state as collection is only just beginning in some states Strengths - one of the few sources that triangulates multiple sources of data including death investigation reports; weaknesses - timeliness and ability to consistently identify victims as law enforcement officers.  CDC National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS)
BLS - Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries Program (CFOI) Qualitative National Transportation incidents and homicides Summary data can be downloaded but incident level data is not available. Agency-level or geographic-level (city or county level) 2009 data currently available; 2010 data not released but summary pdf is available National data collection effort on deaths in the workplace. BLS - Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries Program (CFOI)
Data Source Data Type Data Coverage Types of Incidents Included Availability Level of Aggregation Timeliness Strengths Data Source
FBI Law Enforcement Officers Killed & Assaulted (LEOKA) Quantitative & Qualitative National Felonious, accidental killings, and nonfatal assaults on law enforcement officers acting in the line of duty IACP has gained full access to last 30 years of data. Incident-level 1980 - 2010 is currently available to IACP This data set is the most comprehensive source of officer line of duty deaths and assaults. The FBI aggregates data and provides tables that are open source. Very helpful for understanding problem from  broad perspective. Short narratives are also provided separately. FBI Law Enforcement Officers Killed & Assaulted (LEOKA)
National Law Enforcement Officer Memorial Fund (NLEOMF) Quantitative & Qualitative National All law enforcement line of duty deaths and verified by death certificate or other official means IACP has access to 2009 data. This information is not available to the public. Incident-level 2010 is currently available and the files for 2011 are in the process of being updated. The files contain multiple official sources from police agencies about line of duty death incidents. National Law Enforcement Officer Memorial Fund (NLEOMF)

IACP/DuPont Kevlar Survivors' Club

 Quantitative & Qualitative International: Includes all persons who submit application nationally Incidents where an officer is saved by his/her vest in the line of duty IACP has access to all recorded saves and continues to receive new cases. Officer-level New saves continue to be tracked Best access to narratives of incidents and allows for access to survivors.

IACP/DuPont Kevlar Survivors' Club
Data Source Data Type Data Coverage Types of Incidents Included Availability Level of Aggregation Timeliness Strengths Data Source
National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) Quantitative & Qualitative About 30% of the nation's jurisdictions report to NIBRS; 10 states have complete coverage Assaults and homicides; also includes information on type of injury and on offender characteristics Public use data can be accessed at ICPSR - SAS, SPSS, or Stata files available. Incident-level 2008 is currently available Better reported and more in depth than UCR data. National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)
BJS Data Sources - Law Enforcement Management & Admin Stats (LEMAS) Quantitative & Qualitative National rep sample of police agencies. Completed every 2 or 3 years Organizational characteristics of law enforcement agencies Data is available to the public through ICPSR. Agency-level 2007 is available Provides insight into demographics and new trends within a sample of law enforcement agencies and is a good resource for basic agency information. BJS Data Sources - Law Enforcement Management & Admin Stats (LEMAS)
BJS Data Sources -  Public Police Contact Survey (PPCS) Quantitative National rep: 80% of the NCVS sample from 2005 – approx 60K residents age 16 or older interviewed Nature and characteristics of face-to-face contacts between police and the public, including the reason for and outcome of the contact Raw data is available to the public. Incident-level 2008 is the most recent released data Large data set in SPSS. May provide a context for which the use of force against police exists in year examined.  The survey enables BJS to estimate the likelihood of a driver being pulled over in a traffic stop and the percentage of all contacts that involve the use of force by police. BJS Data Sources -  Public Police Contact Survey (PPCS)
Data Source Data Type Data Coverage Types of Incidents Included Availability Level of Aggregation Timeliness Strengths Data Source
BJS Data Sources - Arrest Related Deaths (ARD) Quantitative & Qualitative National Provides data on circumstances of deaths occur during, or shortly after, state or local law enforcement personnel engage in arrest or restraint process. Data collected includes manner and cause of death, decedent's demographic characteristics, decedent's behavior during the events leading up to death, tactics and weapons used by law enforcement personnel, law enforcement agency involved in arrest process, and nature of injuries sustained during the process of apprehension. Public use of aggregated data is available. State & Agency-level The latest report is from 2003 -2005 May provide insight into offender perception that leads to assaults and line of duty deaths. BJS Data Sources - Arrest Related Deaths (ARD)
NHTSA - Fatalities Analysis Reporting System (FARS)  Quantitative National Traffic crashes Raw data is available to the public. Incident-level 2009 is available National sample of all crashes involving public safety vehicles. NHTSA - Fatalities Analysis Reporting System (FARS)

ATF e-Trace

Quantitative National All firearms traced by law enforcement including data on caliber and type There is no availability of this information to the public other than the overall reports. Incident-level 2010 is available Provides unique access into the firearms recovered by law enforcement.

ATF e-Trace

State-Level Data Quantitative & Qualitative Collected in 42 states All use of force, legal intervention, and line of duty death cases Data is not publically available. Incident-level  2012 is available Provides unique insight into near-miss incidents. State-Level Data

For more information contact:

Rebecca McClelland at mcclelland@theiacp.org or 1-800-843-4227, extension 836.

Funding Agency: Bureau of Justice Assistance
Web: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/BJA