DOI: 10.3886/icpsr03187.v1
title: Felonious Homicides of American Police Officers, 1977-1992
title: Version 1

description: The study was a comprehensive analysis of felonious
 killings of officers. The purposes of the study were (1) to analyze
 the nature and circumstances of incidents of felonious police killings
 and (2) to analyze trends in the numbers and rates of killings across
 different types of agencies and to explain these differences. For Part
 1, Incident-Level Data, an incident-level database was created to
 capture all incidents involving the death of a police officer from
 1983 through 1992. Data on officers and incidents were collected from
 the Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted (LEOKA) data
 collection as coded by the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program. In
 addition to the UCR data, the Police Foundation also coded information
 from the LEOKA narratives that are not part of the computerized LEOKA
 database from the FBI. For Part 2, Agency-Level Data, the researchers
 created an agency-level database to research systematic differences
 among rates at which law enforcement officers had been feloniously
 killed from 1977 through 1992. The investigators focused on the 56
 largest law enforcement agencies because of the availability of data
 for explanatory variables. Variables in Part 1 include year of
 killing, involvement of other officers, if the officer was killed with
 his/her own weapon, circumstances of the killing, location of fatal
 wounds, distance between officer and offender, if the victim was
 wearing body armor, if different officers were killed in the same
 incident, if the officer was in uniform, actions of the killer and of
 the officer at entry and final stage, if the killer was visible at
 first, if the officer thought the killer was a felon suspect, if the
 officer was shot at entry, and circumstances at anticipation, entry,
 and final stages. Demographic variables for Part 1 include victim's
 sex, age, race, type of assignment, rank, years of experience, agency,
 population group, and if the officer was working a security job. Part
 2 contains variables describing the general municipal environment,
 such as whether the agency is located in the South, level of poverty
 according to a poverty index, population density, percent of
 population that was Hispanic or Black, and population aged 15-34 years
 old. Variables capturing the crime environment include the violent
 crime rate, property crime rate, and a gun-related crime
 index. Lastly, variables on the environment of the police agencies
 include violent and property crime arrests per 1,000 sworn officers,
 percentage of officers injured in assaults, and number of sworn
officers.
description: Although many police policies are designed to
 protect officers from the threat of violence and a great deal of
 training is dedicated to teaching officers how to thwart assaults,
 researchers have paid little attention to the subject of police
 killings. This study examined the geographic and demographic context
 of police shootings, the weapons used to kill officers, the offense
 circumstances, the characteristics of the police victims and their
 assailants, and the punitive consequences for the offenders. The study
 was a comprehensive analysis of felonious killings of officers. The
 purposes of the study were (1) to analyze the nature and circumstances
 of incidents of felonious police killings and (2) to analyze trends in
 the numbers and rates of killings across different types of agencies
and to explain these differences.
description: For Part 1 an incident-level database was created
 to capture all incidents involving the death of a police officer from
 1983 through 1992. Data on officers and incidents were collected from
 the Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted (LEOKA) data
 collection as coded by the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program. In
 addition to the UCR data, the Police Foundation also coded information
 from the LEOKA narratives that are not part of the computerized LEOKA
 database from the FBI. The narrative data were added because they
 provide more detail than the summary data, particularly with respect
 to the progression of events leading to the killing. For Part 2 the
 researchers created an agency-level database to research systematic
 differences among rates at which law enforcement officers had been
 feloniously killed from 1977 through 1992. The investigators
 focused on the 56 largest law enforcement agencies because of the
 availability of data for explanatory variables. This data file
 contains variables representing the general environment of the 56
 cities, the specific crime environment of those cities, and selected
characteristics of the law enforcement agencies themselves.
description: Variables in Part 1 include year of killing,
 involvement of other officers, if the officer was killed with his/her
 own weapon, circumstances of the killing, location of fatal wounds,
 distance between officer and offender, if the victim was wearing body
 armor, if different officers were killed in the same incident, if the
 officer was in uniform, actions of the killer and of the officer at
 entry and final stage, if the killer was visible at first, if the
 officer thought the killer was a felon suspect, if the officer was
 shot at entry, and circumstances at anticipation, entry, and final
 stages. Demographic variables for Part 1 include victim's sex, age,
 race, type of assignment, rank, years of experience, agency,
 population group, and if the officer was working a security job. Part
 2 contains variables describing the general municipal environment,
 such as whether the agency is located in the South, level of poverty
 according to a poverty index, population density, percent of
 population that was Hispanic or Black, and population aged 15-34 years
 old. Variables capturing the crime environment include the violent
 crime rate, property crime rate, and a gun-related crime
 index. Lastly, variables on the environment of the police agencies
 include violent and property crime arrests per 1,000 sworn officers,
 percentage of officers injured in assaults, and number of sworn
officers.
description: Response Rates: Not applicable.
description: Presence of Common Scales: None.
description: Not applicable.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Incident-Level Data
DS2: Agency-Level Data
description: Part 1: All officers who were killed from 1983 through
 1992 in the United States. Part 2: 56 largest police agencies in the
United States from 1977 to 1992.
description: (1) The final report for this study includes analysis
 of the effect of soft body armor. Data related to this can be found in
 POLICE USE OF FORCE [UNITED STATES]: OFFICIAL REPORTS, CITIZEN
 COMPLAINTS, AND LEGAL CONSEQUENCES, 1991-1992 (ICPSR 6274). (2) The
 user guide, codebook, and data collection instrument are provided by
 ICPSR as Portable Document Format (PDF) files. The PDF file format was
 developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated and can be accessed using PDF
 reader software, such as the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Information on how
 to obtain a copy of the Acrobat Reader is provided on the ICPSR Web
site.