ATLANTA — The last time the number of line-of-duty losses fell this low, the law enforcement officers on the street today weren’t even conceived.
The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund says law enforcement deaths dropped to an 80-year low in 2025, to 111. That’s a decrease of 25% from the 148 federal, state, local, and U. S. territories law enforcement officers who died in 2024.
“That is still a lot if you are the husband, wife, kids, you know, mother, father,” says Steven Gaynor, spokesman for the Georgia Fraternal Order of Police. “It’s very devastating for that family.”
Gaynor says it is good to see the numbers down nationwide. He says there has been an upward trend of assaults on police officers.
“Particularly ambush attacks on law enforcement have tended to increase. One of our most violent, probably, response calls lately has been domestic calls where we have been ambushed,” says Gaynor.
NLEOMF’s report says gun fatalities were the leading cause of death, with 44 in 2025. Those were followed by 34 traffic-related incidents—either crashes or officers struck while outside their vehicles. The third listed cause of death for law enforcement officers in the line of duty is “Other”—which includes long-term illness from the 9/11terror attacks; acute medical incidents caused by extreme events on the job; or various “rare yet significant” incidents.
Gaynor credits improved equipment, training, and medical treatment for the decrease in law enforcement deaths, especially in the face of gunfire.
“We have managed to survive a lot of them because of the training and the tactics that we’ve put in place, plus the improvements to ballistics vests,” says Gaynor. “And also when we are shot, doctors are a lot better at responding to a gunshot wound.” He points to the stellar care that Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta has given when someone is shot.
The NLEOMF report has Georgia tied for the fifth-highest number of officer deaths nationwide in 2025, at five. One of the most high-profile of those was DeKalb County Police Officer David Rose, who was shot and killed while responding to an active shooter call in August near the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) at Emory University.
Other fallen officers in Georgia last year include Roswell Police Officer Jeremy Labonte, South Fulton Police Captain Helio Garcia, and Columbia County Deputy Sheriff Brandon Sikes. Garcia was killed by a traffic crash, caused by an alleged drunk driver. Labonte and Sikes were shot.
Gaynor says he spent 38 years in law enforcement, retiring just this past weekend from the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office. He tells WSB he has been on at least two SWAT calls in which other officers were killed.
“The loss on a personal level is very emotional, very disturbing, especially when you knew the person,” he says.
Gaynor shares one experience in which a buddy was killed; he has remained in contact with that man’s family and watched the officer’s daughter grow into adulthood, get married, and become a nurse.
“She’s done awesome,” Gaynor says. “It’s been great to see her grow up, but her dad never saw that. Her dad was really a family man. So it’s been really tough to see that, when officers are killed and they have little ones that they’ll never see grow up.”
Firearms-related fatalities have claimed the lives of 44 officers in 2025, which represents an 15% decrease from the 52 officers killed by gunfire in 2024 and was the leading cause of death.
The retired lawman says more of the public have become great supporters of law enforcement.
“They realize we are that thin line between what’s evil and what’s good, and what’s going to keep them alive during the night. And we patrol the streets at night while they sleep safely at home.”
