Police officers routinely risk exposure to assault and homicide. Although the danger involved in police work has been accepted as part of the job, there may be explanations beyond the 'role' of the police that could enhance the current understanding of violence against the police. Assaults and homicides have been analyzed as distinct categories of violent behavior, with specific intentions and motivations attributed to the assailants. The two crimes have also been studied as behaviors existing along a continuum of criminal violence, differentiated only by the degree of injury inflicted on the victim. The police, due to the nature of the work they perform, qualify as a special subset of victims. Consequently, the similarities or differences of violence involved in the assaults and homicides of officers cannot be assumed, but must be empirically tested. A national data base is utilized to provide a general framework for the study of violence against the police in a large, urban police department. Criminal assaults and homicides of police in New York are documented and described in an attempt to discern patterns between the two crimes. Additionally, a thematic analysis of violent police-citizen encounters provides insights regarding the motivation of police assailants. At a minimum, some myths regarding police are dispelled through this information, which is intended to increase police awareness of their situations and thereby reduce their anxieties and casualties. (Author abstract modified)