There’s a reason we don’t know for certain if shootings of civilians by law enforcement are up or down, why we don’t know how many of such shootings are truly justified, or how much of a percentage of the total police killings are actually heard about on the evening news. That reason: no one is tracking it. And that is a serious problem.
As Radley Balko with the Huffington Post examines, most police agencies may track officer shootings on a micro-level, but no one is submitting these to the Department of Justice or any other larger body to compile and analyze.
This isn’t a new discovery. The New York Times brought it to the forefront in a 2001 report, stating:
Despite widespread public interest and a provision in the 1994 Crime Control Act requiring the attorney general to collect the data and publish an annual report on them, statistics on police shootings and use of nondeadly force continue to be piecemeal products of spotty collection, and are dependent on the cooperation of local police departments. No comprehensive accounting for all the nation’s 17,000 police departments exists.
So, the agencies collect the data per the 1994 Crime Control Act, but then that data languishes and nothing is done with it. (Similarly, no information is available on how police agencies are using all of the military equipment they are purchasing or getting for free from the federal government.)
If we could look at the data, it would likely tell us most, if not all police shootings and uses of force were justified and handled according to police protocol. This is because the people investigating the officers’ uses of force and shootings are officers themselves. The police are policing the police. And it shouldn’t be any surprise that the findings are coming up in their favor.
When police officers are killed, we know about it. When the annual, national figures come out on police officers killed in the line of duty, it’s front page news. But when civilians are killed (or even hurt) by agents of the government, we hear nothing official about it. We are left with the stories that the media picks up, and those likely only represent a fraction of the whole story.
If you are arrested and treated unfairly by the police, you are not alone. More than likely, you will face criminal charges following your arrest, and that’s where we may be able to help. Let us put you in contact with a local criminal defense attorney today.
About David Matson