{"id":835,"date":"2018-03-31T19:37:10","date_gmt":"2018-03-31T23:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=835"},"modified":"2018-03-31T19:37:10","modified_gmt":"2018-03-31T23:37:10","slug":"federal-count-of-deadly-police-shootings-is-slow-to-get-going","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=835","title":{"rendered":"Federal Count of Deadly Police Shootings Is Slow to Get Going"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Zusha Elinson\u00a0<\/span>March 31, 2018<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

FBI tracking of number of fatal incidents, which could begin in 2019, has no timetable<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n
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\"Demonstrators<\/div>\n
Demonstrators protesting the police shooting of Stephon Clark, in Sacramento, Calif., on March 23.<\/span>\u00a0PHOTO:\u00a0<\/span>BOB<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

A deadly police shooting of an\u00a0unarmed black man in Sacramento, Calif.,\u00a0<\/a>has spurred fresh protests and again highlighted a long-vexing question: How many people do police kill each year?<\/p>\n

There isn\u2019t an easy answer.<\/p>\n

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A Federal Bureau of Investigation effort launched in 2015 to track the number of people killed by police in the U.S. could begin gathering national data next year, but there is no set timetable, officials said. Another effort by the Justice Department\u2019s research arm, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, to count arrest-related deaths\u00a0was supposed to begin in 2016<\/a>but has yet to do so.<\/p>\n

Federal agencies began drawing up plans for tallies in the wake of mass protests over the fatal\u00a0police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.<\/a>, in 2014.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u201cWhen something like Ferguson happens, or more recently in Sacramento with Stephon Clark, there is understandable outrage,\u201d said Justin Nix, an assistant professor at University of Nebraska Omaha who studies police shootings. \u201cWhat we need to be able to do is to step back and say, \u2018How often do these things occur? How often are officers firing their guns?\u2019 \u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0Stephen Fischer, an FBI spokesman, said the bureau doesn\u2019t have a precise timetable for beginning the nationwide data-collection program or releasing public reports on the results. He said the bureau tested its system with 100 police agencies last year and is analyzing the results.<\/span>The FBI aims to collect data<\/a>\u00a0on deaths and injuries caused by police use of force as well as any incident in which a police officer shoots at a someone.<\/p>\n

It could begin as soon as 2019, hinging on various bureaucratic approvals and the ability to recruit enough police departments, said Doug Middleton, who chairs the FBI committee overseeing the use-of-force data collection.\u00a0He said that 1,600 of the nation\u2019s nearly 18,000 law-enforcement agencies have voluntarily agreed to submit data so far.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are embryonic in our efforts to recruit and we hope that law-enforcement agencies will see the value of being a part of this historic effort,\u201d said Mr. Middleton, a former police chief who now serves as deputy county manager for public safety in Henrico County, Va.<\/p>\n

The FBI plans to issue public reports with the data much as it does with national crime statistics. These could help identify trends and inform police agencies about what kind of training to give their officers while also informing the public, Mr. Middleton said.<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for the Bureau of Justice Statistics referred questions to another federal agency, the Bureau of Justice Assistance, which is now taking the lead. A spokeswoman for that agency said it is \u201cworking with stakeholders to develop the arrest related deaths data collection process\u201d and would outline what it proposes to do in coming weeks.<\/p>\n

In the past, the federal government has counted police killings in piecemeal fashion, resulting in incomplete numbers. In 2014,\u00a0a Wall Street Journal analysis<\/a>\u00a0found that among 105 of the nation\u2019s largest police departments, about 45% of killings by officers went unreported to the FBI between 2007 and 2012.\u00a0A 2015 study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics found the bureau and the FBI had each undercounted by about half the number of arrest-related deaths between 2003 and 2009.<\/p>\n

Meantime,\u00a0the Washington Post\u00a0<\/a>and\u00a0the Guardian<\/a>\u00a0began keeping their own tallies. The number of deadly police shootings has hovered just under 1,000 annually for the past three years, according to the Post\u2019s count.<\/p>\n

Criminal-justice researchers say it shouldn\u2019t take so long for the government to figure out how to count police killings and that official data would be valuable in understanding how and when police use deadly force. But they also point out that far more than 1,600 agencies would need to report to present a true national picture.<\/p>\n

Write to\u00a0<\/strong>Zusha Elinson at\u00a0zusha.elinson@wsj.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Stephen Fischer, an FBI spokesman, said the bureau doesn\u2019t have a precise timetable for beginning the nationwide data-collection program or releasing public reports on the results. He said the bureau tested its system with 100 police agencies last year and is analyzing the results.<\/p>\n

The FBI aims to collect data<\/a>\u00a0on deaths and injuries caused by police use of force as well as any incident in which a police officer shoots at a someone.<\/p>\n

It could begin as soon as 2019, hinging on various bureaucratic approvals and the ability to recruit enough police departments, said Doug Middleton, who chairs the FBI committee overseeing the use-of-force data collection.\u00a0He said that 1,600 of the nation\u2019s nearly 18,000 law-enforcement agencies have voluntarily agreed to submit data so far.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are embryonic in our efforts to recruit and we hope that law-enforcement agencies will see the value of being a part of this historic effort,\u201d said Mr. Middleton, a former police chief who now serves as deputy county manager for public safety in Henrico County, Va.<\/p>\n

The FBI plans to issue public reports with the data much as it does with national crime statistics. These could help identify trends and inform police agencies about what kind of training to give their officers while also informing the public, Mr. Middleton said.<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for the Bureau of Justice Statistics referred questions to another federal agency, the Bureau of Justice Assistance, which is now taking the lead. A spokeswoman for that agency said it is \u201cworking with stakeholders to develop the arrest related deaths data collection process\u201d and would outline what it proposes to do in coming weeks.<\/p>\n

In the past, the federal government has counted police killings in piecemeal fashion, resulting in incomplete numbers. In 2014,\u00a0a Wall Street Journal analysis<\/a>\u00a0found that among 105 of the nation\u2019s largest police departments, about 45% of killings by officers went unreported to the FBI between 2007 and 2012.\u00a0A 2015 study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics found the bureau and the FBI had each undercounted by about half the number of arrest-related deaths between 2003 and 2009.<\/p>\n

Meantime,\u00a0the Washington Post\u00a0<\/a>and\u00a0the Guardian<\/a>\u00a0began keeping their own tallies. The number of deadly police shootings has hovered just under 1,000 annually for the past three years, according to the Post\u2019s count.<\/p>\n

Criminal-justice researchers say it shouldn\u2019t take so long for the government to figure out how to count police killings and that official data would be valuable in understanding how and when police use deadly force. But they also point out that far more than 1,600 agencies would need to report to present a true national picture.<\/p>\n

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