FBI Director Christopher Wray told "60 Minutes" on Sunday that violence against police officers "doesn't get enough attention," and that the murder rate of officers increased by more than 50%.
"Violence against law enforcement in this country is one of the biggest phenomena that I think doesn't get enough attention," Wray said.
He went on to add that a police officer is murdered at a rate of almost "one every five days."
According to Wray, "Some of it is tied to the violent crime problem as a whole. But one of the phenomena that we saw in the last year is that an alarming percentage of the 73 law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty last year were killed through things like being ambushed or shot while out on patrol ... wearing the badge shouldn't make you a target.”
The FBI director added that the increased violence against officers comes during a widespread rise in violent crime in cities all over the country.
"We're seeing more and more juveniles committing violent crime, and that's certainly an issue,” he said. "We're seeing a certain amount of gun trafficking, interstate gun trafficking. That's part of it. And we're seeing an alarming frequency of some of the worst of the worst getting back out on the streets."
The head of the Fraternal Order of Police, Patrick Yoes, said in a statement earlier this month that police officer shootings have risen by 43% in 2022 so far, and that over 100 officers have been shot as of April 1.
"We are in the midst of a real crisis," Yoes said. "The violence directed at law enforcement officers is unlike anything I’ve seen in my 36 years of law enforcement. Last year was one of the most dangerous years for law enforcement, with more officers shot in the line of duty since the National Fraternal Order of Police began recording this data."
© 2023 Newsmax. All rights reserved.