Fifty-six law enforcement officers -- five in Georgia -- died during assaults in the line of duty last year, the FBI said. Another 72 officers were accidentally killed in the line of duty, almost all of them involving vehicles.
More than 53,000 officers -- nearly one in 10 -- were assaulted during 2010, according to the annual Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted report, released Monday.
The list of 56 officers killed is a 17 percent increase over 2009, when 48 were killed. It was, however, still significantly lower than 10 years ago, when 70 deaths were reported.
Information in the report is collected through the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program with more than 11,000 agencies reporting data.
Some of the highlights of the report:
-- All but one of the 56 victims was killed by a firearm; in the one exception, a vehicle was used as the weapon.
-- Circumstances of the deaths varied: 15 were ambushed, 14 died during arrests, seven were performing traffic stops and six were answering disturbance calls. A number of other circumstances accounted for the remainder.
-- One-third of officer assaults occurred while responding to disturbance calls; 14.7 percent while officers were making arrests.
-- The average ages of officers killed intentionally and accidentally were 38 and 39 respectively.
The five officers killed in Georgia matched a 10-year high set in 2005. Over the 10-year period from 2001 to 2010, there were 19 Georgia officers killed in the line of duty.
The 2010 deaths in Georgia were:
-- Georgia State Patrol Trooper Chad LeCroy was shot and killed Dec. 27 while making a traffic stop in Atlanta.
-- Dougherty County Police Lt. Cliff Rouse was killed Dec. 23 while responding to an armed robbery call at a convenience store.
-- Greene County Sheriff's Deputy Kevin Roberts was killed Nov. 14 at his home by the target of a drug investigation.
-- Rockdale Sheriff's Deputy Brian Mahaffey was shot and killed May 8 while serving a warrant at a residence.
-- Chattahoochee Hills Police Lt. Mike Vogt was shot and killed in his patrol car Feb. 15 while investigating a suspicious vehicle parked on a dirt road in a rural area of the city.
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