Deaths of on-duty law enforcement officers in the United States decreased by nearly 25% in 2025, according to a report shared with The Associated Press ahead of its release Tuesday.
The report from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund said total on-duty fatalities fell from 148 in 2024 to 111 last year.
Firearms deaths also declined, with the Fund reporting that officer firearm fatalities dropped to 44 in 2025 from 52 in 2024, a 15% decrease and the lowest number in at least a decade.
Bill Alexander, chief executive officer of the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, said, “I always like to see that firearms deaths are down. They are the tip of the spear for egregious acts.”
Alexander said that traffic-related deaths decreased nearly 23% between 2024 and 2025. He said the category includes both fatal traffic accidents and officers killed after being struck by a vehicle, which often happens during traffic stops.
He said, “Even one officer fatality is too many, and our ultimate goal is to have none. But we’re heartened by any decrease in those numbers.” Alexander attributed the traffic-related decline likely to an increase in the national conversation about officer safety on the road.
He pointed to more states passing “move-over” laws requiring drivers to move out of the lane closest to traffic stops or accidents while passing them. He also said there have been increased efforts to direct officers to approach the passenger side of cars during traffic stops, removing officers from travel lanes.
The Fund said the reasons behind the firearm-fatality decline are harder to define. Alexander said many departments have offered increased safety training and have better equipment for firearm injuries, but he said luck and other unquantifiable factors can also play a role.
He said, “Some of it could come down to an officer being shot close to a hospital or maybe the officers had a tactical emergency kit or better blood stopping equipment.” Alexander also cautioned that fewer fatalities does not necessarily mean fewer instances of officers being shot or being shot at.
He noted that the National Fraternal Order of Police tracks the number of officer shootings, both fatal and non-fatal, and that its reporting does not include incidents where officers were shot at and not struck. The FOP report released this week showed officers shot while on-duty increased from 342 in 2024 to 347 in 2025.
The AP report cited high-profile officer deaths in 2025 including Andrew Duarte, a West York Borough Police Department officer who was shot and killed in February while responding to a man who had taken several people hostage in a York, Pennsylvania hospital. It also said funeral services were held Monday for Delaware State Trooper Matthew “Ty” Snook, who was shot and killed while working an overtime shift at a DMV office on Dec. 23, after pushing a DMV employee out of the way of the gunman.
The Fund’s fatality report also said there were no on-duty officer fatalities in 17 states and Washington, D.C., and none at the nation’s federal and tribal law enforcement agencies last year. It reported a 37% drop in the “other” fatalities category, which includes physical or medical issues from on-duty incidents and other fatal outcomes such as stabbings, drownings or plane crashes—falling from 52 in 2024 to 33 in 2025.
The “other” category figure includes 14 officers who died last year from illnesses related to responding to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Alexander said previous annual reports included COVID-19 deaths, which increased fatality numbers significantly in 2020 and 2021, but he said COVID deaths have not been included as on-duty fatalities in the last two years.
The report also does not include officers who committed suicide. Alexander said the group is having conversations about how to honor and include those officers.