Ambush assaults on the police are horrific events. They are different than other violent encounters in that they are unprovoked and characterized by the element of surprised. The assailants target the police for who they are and what they represent: officers of the law. Statistically, these incidents are low frequency. However, their cost is high. The impacts of these incidents reach far, from the officers themselves, their families, and their fellow police, to the community at large. Although much research has been conducted on officer-citizen encounters, including those that turn violent and even deadly, it tends to focus more on police-on-citizen violence. Less prevalent is research that focuses on citizen-on-police violence. And at the present time, research on ambush attacks, a very specific form of violence against the police, is non-existent.