What Changed

On August 3, 2026, the National Fraternal Order of Police published its monthly count of officers shot in the line of duty, covering January 1 through July 31. Shootings are slightly down from last year. Deaths are down by about a third.

The FOP is a police labor and advocacy organization, and this is its own tally, not an official federal statistic. It is still a monthly national count worth reading.

The Numbers

From the FOP's August 3 update:

  • 189 officers shot through July 31, down 4% from the same point in 2025 and down 16% from 2024.
  • 17 of them killed, down 34% from 2025 and 46% from 2024.
  • 27 ambush-style attacks, in which 36 officers were shot and 6 were killed.
  • The highest count for this point in the year was 2023, with 228 officers shot in the first seven months.

For context, the FOP's July 1 midyear release counted 169 officers shot and 15 killed through June. By our arithmetic, that means about 20 more officers were shot in July, and roughly 1 in 11 officers shot this year has died.

In that July release, FOP National President Patrick Yoes said: "Only 15 officers shot in the line of duty were killed so far this year—a fact we attribute to continuing improvements in medical trauma science and anti-ballistic technology." He also said: "It is no wonder that our profession continues to face a recruitment and retention crisis." The FOP continues to urge Congress to pass the Protect and Serve Act, which it says would address ambushes on officers.

The next day, August 4, a Las Vegas officer was killed in an ambush as he got out of his patrol car. The numbers are people.

Why It Matters Operationally

If the FOP is right that trauma care and armor are part of why fewer shot officers are dying, that good news depends on things that wear out. Armor has a service life. Used tourniquets have to be replaced. Skills that aren't practiced fade. A gain built on training can slip if the training stops.

The ambush numbers matter too. In an ambush, the first person to treat a wounded officer is often the officer, or the partner who just arrived. The May 2026 Tactical Combat Casualty Care guidelines tell a casualty to "move to cover and apply self-aid if able." That only works if the officer has done it before, with either hand, under stress.

The Joint Trauma System's Damage Control Resuscitation guideline says "hemorrhage is the leading cause of preventable death on the battlefield." That is combat data, not police data. For civilian agencies, the matching framework is Tactical Emergency Casualty Care (TECC), from the Committee for Tactical Emergency Casualty Care, which covers "high risk and atypical civilian operational scenarios."

ODM's Position

Position: If fewer shot officers are dying partly because of better trauma care, keeping that gain is a budget decision. Medical training has to be repeated and paid for, not done once at the academy.

Evidence: The FOP itself credits "medical trauma science and anti-ballistic technology." The CoTCCC's guidelines were updated as recently as May 2026, so the standard officers are trained to doesn't stay fixed. And the ambush figures describe attacks where outside help won't be first on scene.

Strongest counterpoint: One year's drop in deaths can reflect many things: where rounds hit, distance to a trauma center, armor, quick EMS, or luck. The FOP data doesn't show which treatments were given or which ones made a difference. Ambushes are also a violence problem, and many would say prevention matters more than first aid. Both points are fair. Casualty care doesn't replace prevention. It is what an agency controls once an officer is shot.

What good looks like: A tourniquet and hemostatic gauze on every officer. Hands-on self-aid and buddy-aid refreshers at least once a year, in cars, stairwells, and low light. Equipment inspection and replacement schedules. Scenarios that start with an officer already down. And a line in the operating budget so the program doesn't depend on a single grant.

What Your Agency Should Do Now

  • Audit your officers' medical kits: what's issued, what's carried on the body, and what's expired or missing.
  • Check the dates on body armor and budget for replacement before it lapses.
  • Schedule hands-on medical refreshers for every sworn officer this fiscal year, not only new hires.
  • Train self-aid for ambush conditions, such as one hand, in or next to a vehicle, with no partner present yet.
  • Record every real-world use of a tourniquet or other medical intervention by an officer, so you can see what your training is producing.

Bottom Line

The FOP's count through July shows fewer officers dying after being shot, and the FOP credits trauma care and armor. Those gains came from things agencies bought and trained. Stop funding them and the gains won't last.

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