Police homicides are drastically underreported in the most-used statistical databases. Fortunately, there exists a better alternative, public-health researchers report today in theAmerican Journal of Public Health—a national system that's been in place since 2003, and that, as of last year, 32 states participate in.
"Recent media attention to the killings of civilians by police has given rise to a national conversation on the use of lethal force by law enforcement: when it is justified and how best to reduce its use while ensuring the greatest possible safety to police," writes a team of public-health researchers led by Harvard University School of Public Health's Catherine Barber.
Unfortunately, two main sources of data on police killings—the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Supplementary Homicide Reports, part of its voluntary Uniform Crime Reporting system, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Vital Statistics database—grossly underreport the numbers, sometimes because reports simplyfail to mention police involvement. For researchers, that makes it difficult to understand who police are killing, why it's happening, and what could be done to reduce deaths.
[For more of this story, written by Nathan Collins, go to http://www.psmag.com/politics-...ort-police-homicides]
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