Firearms and traffic deaths both decline
Officer firearm fatalities fell from 52 in 2024 to 44 in 2025 — a 15% decrease and the lowest total in at least a decade, according to the Fund’s previous annual officer fatality reports.
“I always like to see that firearms deaths are down. They are the tip of the spear for egregious acts,” said Bill Alexander, chief executive officer of the Fund, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that works to memorialize fallen officers, educate the public about the profession and improve officer safety.
Traffic-related deaths also decreased nearly 23% between 2024 and 2025, including both fatal traffic accidents and officers struck by vehicles — typically during traffic stops. Alexander attributed the decline in part to the spread of “move-over” laws, which require drivers to vacate the lane closest to a traffic stop or accident while passing, and to increased efforts directing officers to approach vehicles from the passenger side.
“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 said.
Shooting incidents rose even as deaths fell
The reasons behind the firearm fatality decrease are harder to define, Alexander said. Departments have offered increased safety training and improved equipment for treating gunshot wounds, but factors outside any department’s control may also be at play.
“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,” he said.
Fewer fatal shootings did not translate to fewer shooting incidents overall. The National Fraternal Order of Police’s 2025 report, which tracks both fatal and non-fatal on-duty shootings, showed officers shot while on duty increased slightly, from 342 in 2024 to 347 in 2025.
Officers named among the fallen
Among the officers who died in 2025 was Andrew Duarte, a West York Borough Police Department officer shot and killed in February while responding to a man who had taken several people hostage at a York, Pennsylvania hospital.
Law enforcement officers from around the country attended funeral services Monday for Delaware State Trooper Matthew “Ty” Snook, who was shot and killed on Dec. 23 while working an overtime shift at a DMV office. Snook pushed a DMV employee out of the way of the gunman before he was killed.
Geographic and categorical breakdown
The Fund’s report showed no on-duty officer fatalities in 17 states and Washington, D.C. in 2025, and none at the nation’s federal and tribal law enforcement agencies.
The “other” fatalities category — which includes physical or medical issues from on-duty incidents and deaths from stabbings, drownings, and plane crashes — fell 37%, from 52 in 2024 to 33 in 2025. That figure includes 14 officers who died last year from illnesses related to responding to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
COVID-19 deaths were not included in the Fund’s on-duty fatality totals for the past two years, after significantly increasing counts in 2020 and 2021.