Deaths of law enforcement officers in the line of duty have decreased by half in the U.S. since President Donald Trump returned to office relative to the same period in 2024, new data show.
The fatalities fell by 53%, with firearm killings decreasing by 21%, according to a new report the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF) released Tuesday. Trump’s administration has taken credit for the numbers as indicative of a pro-police culture shift under his presidency after years of broad hostility toward law enforcement following the death of George Floyd in 2020.
Uniformed “survivors” of the law enforcement profession and their families line up for a welcome at the National Peace Officers’ Memorial Service on May 15, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Hudson Crozier/Daily Caller News Foundation)
“This administration [has] the backs of police across the country matters and results are starting to show it,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a Wednesday X post. “We’ve got more to do. Support good cops.”
Forty-two federal, state, county, municipal, and other U.S. officers died in the first half of 2025, compared to 89 who died in the same period last year, according to the NLEOMF. A majority of the 2025 deaths — 22 — were firearm-related killings, the group’s data show, while the rest were traffic-related deaths or “other causes and fatalities” such as fatal health problems caused by events on the job.
The end of the first Trump presidency was marked by nationwide anti-police riots stemming from the Black Lives Matter movement and high-profile deaths of suspects in police custody in 2020. The years that followed came with reports of drops in police officer morale and recruitment, as well as mass resignations in police departments of Democrat-leaning cities.
The Biden administration later took power in Washington and filed lawsuits accusing local police departments of racial discrimination and other alleged misconduct. After Trump returned to the White House, the Department of Justice (DOJ) dropped some of those cases.
Trump has also touted a day-one executive order he signed in January that requires the DOJ to pursue the death penalty for anyone who murders a law enforcement officer.
♂️ With a cop siren in the background, Trump draws cheers with his message at a law enforcement memorial service:
“On my first day in office, I signed an executive order directing Department of Justice to seek the death penalty for any criminal who murders a police officer.” pic.twitter.com/z73J854icj
— Hudson Crozier
(@Hudson_Crozier) May 15, 2025
“Every number that we publish in this report represents a selfless sacrifice made on behalf of the community and the nation in which they serve,” NLEOMF CEO Bill Alexander said about the data. “We lament to document even a single such death, but we are encouraged by how this data is trending currently.”
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