The following Alabama law enforcement facts are included in Crime in Alabama 2008, the thirty-third annual report published by the Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center's Statistical Analysis Center (SAC). This report concentrates on the more serious criminal acts, technically called Part I crimes, reported to the state Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program by the state's law enforcement agencies for calendar year 2008.

• In Alabama in 2008, there were 201,880 crimes reported, a 4% increase over 2007.
• In 2008, the crime rate for the State of Alabama was 4,330.4 per 100,000 inhabitants.
• On a daily average, there were 553 Part I offenses reported.
• The total value of property stolen in Alabama in 2008 was $250,195,952; 15% was recovered.
• There were 265 Law Enforcement Officers assaulted in 2008. On the average, less than one officer was assaulted per day in 2008. 66% received serious injuries and 34% received minimal or no injuries.

5-Year Crime Trends**

** In order to keep crime statistics meaningful, Arson data is not included in Part I totals or Property Crime totals. A separate section on Arson is included in the Crime in Alabama report.

In 2008, the ratio of sworn officers employed by Alabama law enforcement agencies was 2.3 sworn officers per 1,000 population in Alabama. This is .3% above the national average of 2 sworn officers per 1,000 population that same year. You may access information about previous years through the Crime in Alabama publications.

In 2008, no full-time, sworn Alabama law enforcement officer was killed by a felonious act in the line of duty in Alabama. Three officers died in acidents while on duty. There were 265 law enforcement officers assaulted in the line of duty. 176 Officers, or 66%, received serious injuries. The remainder received minimal or no injuries.

You may access information about previous years through the Crime in Alabama publications.

You may access national information through the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Law Enforcement Officers Killed or Assaulted documents online at http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm#hate.

National Statistics on the number of yearly officer line-of-duty deaths can be found in the Federal Bureau of Investigation's yearly Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted (LEOKA) report, which is produced from statistics gathered through the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program. You may access national information online at http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm#hate. You may access Alabama's Officer Down memorial page at http://www.ago.state.al.us/dedication.cfm. The National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund also has a "facts and figures" page that features state-by-state officer death information. Visit this page at http://www.nleomf.org/TheMemorial/facts.htm.

In 2008, Alabama law enforcement agencies reported that responding to a disturbance call was the most dangerous police activity, resulting in 28% of the assaults. The next most dangerous activity was traffic, resulting in 17% of the assaults. 42% of the law enforcement officers who were assaulted were assaulted between the hours of 8:00 p.m. and 2:00 a.m.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics is leading the national effort to research deaths in law enforcement custody. You may view its publications online at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/dcrp/dictabs.htm.

For Alabama-specific data, please contact the Alabama Statistical Analysis Center by calling 334.517.2450.