Inexcusably late, the FBI finally announced plans to track violent police incidents, including shootings, that involve citizens. Better and more complete data can only help. But it shouldn’t just stop with the FBI, and it shouldn’t just be limited to
Inexcusably late, the FBI finally announced plans to track violent police incidents, including shootings, that involve citizens. Better and more complete data can only help. But it shouldn’t just stop with the FBI, and it shouldn’t just be limited to counting shootings.
The current dearth of information about police use of force hurts this nation, now roiled by protests about highly publicized police shootings of young, mostly black men, and the pushback by conservatives who think there’s a “war on police.”
There is much to praise in the new data collection idea as well as much to be teased out in the details. The hope is to get the new reports implemented by 2017. That might be too optimistic, according to criminologist Richard Rosenfeld, of the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
But it’s a start at doing something long overdue and desperately needed, something that was recommended by the President’s Commission on 21st Century Policing and the Ferguson Commission.
The FBI’s new data collection effort will, for the first time, track any incident in which an officer causes serious injury or death to civilians.
To be most helpful, the information collected should include at least the location of incidents; the race, ethnicity, age and gender of the officer and citizen involved; the details of the encounter including weapons involved; and the type of force used in each situation.
The aim is to use the data to improve police training, amend policies where needed and begin to repair a civil justice system rife with suspicion and anger, borne especially by minorities based on historical mistreatment. Done right, the data will help clear the record for good cops facing dangerous encounters and expose those who act improperly.
A 35-member advisory board of police chiefs and representatives of police organizations from across the country supports the new FBI data-collection effort. The proposal goes next to the FBI’s legal offices for review and then to the agency’s director for his signature.
Lives are on the line, those of citizens and police. Too many have died, citizens and cops alike, to not look deeper into the facts. Accurate data is the necessary first step.
— St. Louis Post-Dispatch
