More police officers have been shot and killed in 2016 than 2015.
The photographs of slain Palm Springs Police Officers Lesley Zerebny and Jose Vega are shown amidst flowers and remembrances atop a memorial statue at police headquarters in Palm Springs, California, on Oct. 9, 2016. REUTERS/Sam Mircovich

Officer fatalities have increased by 20 percent in 2016, with more than 60 percent of police deaths resulting from a gun-related fatality, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF), a national database that tracks the death toll of police officers within the U.S.

As of Thursday, the NLEOMF reported 134 police officers had died so far in 2016 from a variety of incidents ranging from traffic accidents, fatal falls, plane crashes and health-related causes. Of those, 63 were caused by firearm-related incidents, including the shooting of Officer Nicholas Ryan Smarr, a Georgia police officer who was shot and killed Wednesday in the line of duty in Americus.

So far in 2016, 62 officers have been shot and killed in the U.S., which is 24 more people than the 38 officer victims that were reported in 2015. Only two of the deaths reported were caused by accidental gunfire. In the NLEOMF’s mid-year report, which was released in July, the department found 14 of the officers killed by gunfire had died in ambush-style attacks between January and July. That number has risen to 20 following the killing of a San Antonio officer in November, according to the Washington Post.

Texas leads with the highest number of officers dying during a line of duty, accounting for deaths of 18 people, five of whom were killed in July during a protest in Dallas. California trails behind Texas, with 10 people reportedly dying during a line of duty so far in 2016.

Although the number of officers shot and killed while on the job is higher in 2016 than what was reported in 2015, fatalities are still on the decline compared to the number of cops who were shot and killed back in the 1970s, when there was an average of 127 officers shot and killed a year, according to the NLEOMF’s mid-year report.

As for the number of people who have been shot and killed by police officers, fatalities seem to be on track toward a decline in that aspect as well. In 2015, a Washington Post report said that 986 people had been shot and killed by police officers while only 875 people have died from officer gunfire so far in 2016.

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