Guns are seen to be among the most commonly used and deadly weapons among police officers in comparison to other tools. An interactive map was created by Vox’s Anand Katakam displaying data of fatal encounters. The interactive map shows a majority of the deaths caused by police officers since the year of 2000. Nearly 3,100 deaths displayed on the map are from gunshots. Aside from gunshots other cases show people who have died from medical emergencies, stab wounds and “suicide by cop”. Suicide by cop is defined as a person who lures a cop into using excessive deadly force, which ultimately leads to their death.
The data is not complete lacking victim’s information such as, age and race. The head of Fatal Encounters, approximates that the organization’s collection of data from the media, FBI and public capture about only 20 percent of total police murders. The reason that collecting data regarding police killings falls short is because within certain state agencies reporting homicides is mandatory, but the circumstances of death is not. It’s possible to find out how many people in a certain location die, but finding out whether or not police officers were involved is difficult. Another important factor to remember about data reports is that they are voluntary meaning only volunteered information is available for reporting and data collection. By only having voluntary information available this leaves room for incomplete sets of data.
Coming to the conclusion that so much of the information is flawed the best way to keep track is by using the Fatal Encounters database. By using information from the Fatal Encounters database data for the amount of police force used against victims can be collected. Although information was obtained from the FBI there are certain limitations. The data displays the minimum number of people who were killed by police in 2012, which makes it difficult to find out how many cases were left out. The reports tell little about how many people were killed, but provides information about who they were and why they were murdered. The FBI collects their data from state and local law enforcement on a monthly basis. Nearly 18,000 agencies participate and provide voluntary information.
Police Officer Killings Categorized Differently?
In 2012, 426 felons were killed by police officers, which is categorized as justifiable homicide. The Uniform Crime Report’s (UCR) data is collected by the FBI. If a police officer kills a felon in the line of duty it’s categorized differently from a normal homicide according to UCR. Out of the 426 victims that were killed only one victim was not killed by a gunshot, but falls under the category of “death by a physical weapon”. Thirty-two percent of the 426 felons killed were of African American decent. Young African Americans today are among the most targeted victims according to Vox Media. The Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR) do not display how many victims posed a threat to police officers while murdered, which makes it hard to determine whether or not the killing was justifiable. SHR lists 118 victims of justifiable homicide who were killed while committing a felony, resisting arrest and fleeing, but not posing harm to others.
There has been a rush to figure out how frequent police killings occur since the killing of Michael Brown. The issue with collecting this data is that no one reports exact information that corresponds with this question. There has been no national database created where a police department is required to report when a police officer kills or shoots a civilian. Data for the years to come may be improved due to more voluntary information provided by law enforcement agencies and asking the right questions. Reporting police killings and reasons should be a requirement to determine whether or not there have been too many unnecessary killings and if race is a factor.
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