Methodology
This section of Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted, 2002, addresses information about federal law enforcement officers who were killed or assaulted in the line of duty in 2002 and who were employed by the following departments and agencies: the U.S. Departments of Homeland Security, the Interior, Justice, and the Treasury; the U.S. Capitol Police; and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Within these 6 federal entities are 13 agencies, bureaus, or services, which employ the majority of the personnel who are responsible for protecting governmental officials and enforcing and investigating violations of federal laws. The national UCR Program annually contacts these departments and requests information about the officers who were killed or assaulted in the line of duty.
Some presentations contained in Section I of this report may reflect data on additional federal officers killed in the line of duty. However, this section represents only those federal officers who were employed by the agencies and met the responsibilities listed above. Additionally, the assault tabulations regarding federal officers presented in this section differ slightly from the assault figures compiled for local and state law enforcement officers previously addressed in this publication. Regardless of the extent or even the absence of personal injury, all reports of assaults or threats to assault are included in the compilations. Further, the circumstance categories are tailored to depict the unique duties performed by federal law enforcement personnel.
Overview
In 2002, federal law enforcement agencies reported 374 assaults on their officers, 1 of which resulted in death. Personal injuries were sustained by 132 federal officers. (See Tables 63 and 64.)
The greatest percentage of officers assaulted, 42.8 percent, were employed by the Department of the Interior. The Department of Homeland Security employed 30.2 percent of the total number of federal officers assaulted; the Department of Justice, 21.4 percent; the U.S. Capitol Police, 2.7 percent; and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, 2.1 percent. The remaining officers worked for the Department of the Treasury. (See Table 63.)
Weapons
Offenders used personal weapons (hands, fists, feet, etc.) in 46.3 percent of the assaults on federal law enforcement officers in 2002. Vehicles were used as weapons in 12.6 percent of the assaults, firearms in 9.1 percent, blunt objects in 6.1 percent, and knives or cutting instruments in 4.3 percent. Other types of weapons were used in 4.3 percent of the assaults on federal officers, and 17.4 percent of the assaults were threats. (Based on Table 68.)
Circumstances
The majority of federal law enforcement officers, 29.7 percent, were making arrests or serving summonses when they were assaulted. An additional 19.0 percent of the victim officers were on patrol or guard duty when they were assaulted, and 18.7 percent were assigned to protection duty. Fifteen percent of the victim officers were conducting investigations or searches at the time of their attacks; 9.9 percent of the officers were on office duty; and 1.6 percent were maintaining custody of prisoners. The remaining officers (6.1 percent) were performing other duties. (Based on Table 69.)
Regional Breakdowns
Regionally, data submitted by federal agencies in 2002 revealed that the 143 officers assaulted in the South accounted for 41.3 percent of the total number of federal officers assaulted. The 117 federal officers assaulted in the West comprised 33.8 percent of the total. There were 47 victims attacked in the Midwest and 34 officers assaulted in the Northeast which accounted for 13.6 percent and 9.8 percent of the total, respectively. Five federal law enforcement officers assigned to U.S. Territories and to foreign assignments were assaulted, accounting for 1.4 percent of the total of assault victims. Incident locales were not available for 28 assaulted officers with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). (Based on Table 67.)
Assailants
In 2002, a total of 245 assailants were identified in connection with assaults on 374 federal law enforcement officers. (See Table 63.) Of the 245 known assailants, 31.0 percent were awaiting trial at the time of this publication, 29.4 percent were found guilty, prosecution was declined for 16.7 percent, and 8.6 percent of the assailants' dispositions were pending prosecutive opinion. Over 7 percent (7.3) of the assailants were found not guilty, and their charges were dismissed; 4.5 percent remained fugitives, and 2.4 percent of the assailants were deceased. (Based on Table 70.)
Five-Year Totals
Data submitted by federal agencies for 1998 through 2002 revealed that 2,772 federal officers were victims of assaults. During that 5-year period, 8 federal officers (excluding the 2 federal officers who lost their lives during the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks) were feloniously killed. (See Table 65.) Three of the victim agents, all of whom were killed in 1998, were employed by the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (BICE) (formerly the Immigration and Naturalization Service [INS]). Three National Park Service
