We're Compiling Every Police-Involved Shooting In America. Help Us.

Link

The United States has no database of police shootings. There is no standardized process by which officers log when they've discharged their weapons and why. There is no central infrastructure for handling that information and making it public. Researchers, confronted with the reality that there are over 17,000 law enforcement agencies in the country, aren't even sure how you'd go about setting one up. No one is keeping track of how many American citizens are shot by their police. This is crazy. This is governmental malpractice on a national scale. We'd like your help in changing this.

Unless you're jaded and cynical like me, you'd probably find it impossible to believe that in the whole of the US that there is no nationwide database detailing cop-related shootings resulting in citizens being wounded or killed. Law enforcement would like to have the general public believe that they have the most dangerous job in the country, and they keep meticulous records of how many police officers are killed or wounded in the line of duty, yet there is no statistics on how many people are killed or wounded by police officers yearly. This isn't a cop bashing thread. Many shootings are justified, but why can't they disclose those statistics?

I think this is a pretty awesome project started by Kyle Wagner, awesome in that it's such a big task and awesome for the public's right to know. Who knows, it may be a bad thing to get people all riled up, but how to effect change when there aren't any solid facts to go by. It may actually prove that policing America is truly dangerous and the latitudes given to law enforcement are completely justified with only a few bad apples spoiling the bunch.

Here's another article by D. Brian Burghart, who has been collecting data for two years on police killings. He says it's no easy task to get this kind of information. He is also creating a nationwide database on police shootings.

Link

The biggest thing I've taken away from this project is something I'll never be able to prove, but I'm convinced to my core: The lack of such a database is intentional. No government—not the federal government, and not the thousands of municipalities that give their police forces license to use deadly force—wants you to know how many people it kills and why.

It's the only conclusion that can be drawn from the evidence. What evidence? In attempting to collect this information, I was lied to and delayed by the FBI, even when I was only trying to find out the addresses of police departments to make public records requests. The government collects millions of bits of data annually about law enforcement in its Uniform Crime Report, but it doesn't collect information about the most consequential act a law enforcer can do.

Not surprising. It's a pretty good article and his website has good info too. Crowdsourcing data to help this along is a pretty noble idea, at least until it gets shut down. Although his submissions process seems a little more confusing than Kyle Wagner's, he is actually going back and fact checking to make it wholly official.

Both articles have many good links and good comments.

Here's a sample of Wagner's submissions form. At the initial link he sets out the guidelines, so once it's all said and done, it should be an accurate and professional accounting.


I personally hope this gains some traction. To me it seems better than bitching about it and hopefully something good can come out of this project. Since the government isn't going to do it. To quote an anonymous user on Jim Fisher's True Crime blog:

In 1994 the Justice department was charged by Congress with tracking police shootings and statistics. Given the ""Top Cop"" attitude and minstrel show in Washington, it has NEVER been accomplished under any administration. In all probability never will even though it is in all probability being paid for. More contempt for the taxpayer and maleficence by elected officials

originally posted by: grandmakdw
Wouldn't it be just as helpful, if not more to the world
to compile everyone in the world that the Islamic State IS has beheaded, tortured, crucified?

No

Because this is about collecting data so they can prove cops are evil mean people who kill millions of innocent people every year.

What is the purpose of you wanting the data base if I may ask? or did I hit the nail on the head?

a reply to: mwood

Or how about just so we can see both sides of the coin.
If the info is out on how many officers get shot, why can't the info of how many people get shot by cops be out there?

a reply to: dfens

Follow the links provided from 2011 down:
wiki..... 2011 ....2010

List of American police officers killed in the line of duty
link

The F.B.I. Deemed Agents Faultless in 150 Shootings

I wonder who'll find the time to make the last 1.2 billion entries.

a reply to: mwood

You're obviously missing the point. We can keep sweeping it under the rug and have a Ferguson every other week, or we can take an honest accounting of our public servants and try and figure out if there is actually a problem or if things are being blown out of proportion. If there is nothing to hide there shouldn't be anything to worry about. Right?

The fact that there isn't one already would seem to suggest something.

If there were a database full of facts, people like you wouldn't be able to quote millions of people killed by police every year without sounding ignorant.

a reply to: LDragonFire

Right off the bat from wiki, and after all it's wiki.

The lists below are incomplete, as the annual average number of justifiable homicides alone is estimated to be near 400. Although Congress instructed the Attorney General in 1994 to compile and publish annual statistics on police use of excessive force, this was never carried out, and the FBI does not collect this data either

I wouldn't call that a done deal, would you?

a reply to: dfens

You claimed to be compiling a list, I added information that I didn't see included.

Or do you not want to compile information?

a reply to: dfens

Might I recommend you take a look at this site:

www.informationliberation.com...

You might also try a look into their archives for more information.

a reply to: LDragonFire

Did you read the OP or links? I'm not the one who put this together. I'm sharing an effort started by another to try and get more exposure as it's a crowdsourcing project. There really is no sinister intent. People are asked to provide truthful data of individual incidents for any given day. Citing Wikipedia statistics isn't what this thread is about.

I find the level of resistance to your OP curious. It seems some people would rather live in the dark than have the truth be told. I, for one, applaud your efforts to get the word out about this valuable project. We can't fix a problem if we can't admit it exists.

a reply to: dfens

Gangs kill thousands more every year than cops do-and half the people killed by cops deserve it.

originally posted by: FalcoFan
a reply to: dfens

Gangs kill thousands more every year than cops do-and half the people killed by cops deserve it.

Really, you KNOW that half the people that are shot by cops deserve to be executed? That sounds like a large number to me. I guess I am old fashioned and think someone deserves a fair trial before they are put to death.

originally posted by: FalcoFan

half the people killed by cops deserve it.

What about the other half?

What if YOU were included in the other half??

ETA: Well done OP

I think it is a great idea.

It really shouldn't be too difficult.

Everytime there is an officer involved shooting there is an investigation done by two entities. For example in Florida one would be done by the department of employment and by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.FDLE would have record of all officer involved shootings.

So basically one would have to contact the state agency that performs the investigation to get the statistics.

I could of sworn state agencies reported those statistics to the FBI via the Uniform Crime Report (UCR).

a reply to: VoidHawk

Well of course s/he would NEVER be apart of that second half.
Insert "they came for x but i wasn't x so I didn't care" saying

originally posted by: FalcoFan
Gangs kill thousands more every year than cops do-and half the people killed by cops deserve it.

A. Source, please

B. Should we compare our police forces - you know - those whose job it is to protect and serve US, to common street gangs???

a reply to: TorqueyThePig
I'm sure it all gets reported, but there is no record that the FBI keeps track, officially. The AG was tasked with this in 1994 and to date there still hasn't been anything set up. You would think that it would be simple to do, yet from what I've read it really isn't. You as a police officer would have an easier time than your average citizen, but I'm sure you have neither the time nor desire. I think at the administrative and government level there is a specific reasoning for not releasing these kinds of statistics.

I know that law enforcement, by and large, aren't out there to murder people, but it happens and not every incident is properly justified, though most are. Transparency isn't a bad thing when it shows both ends of the equation.