U.S. police killed 1,166 people - more than three a day - in 2015, but an official government count missed a majority of the deaths, a new study shows.
The Guardian, a U.K.-based newspaper and media company with U.S. and international editions, counted 93 percent of the U.S. police-related deaths, while the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) statistics counted only 45 percent, the report in PLOS Medicine found.
“It is kind of absurd that a British newspaper is able to do a better job counting the number of killings by police than the CDC or the Department of Justice,” said lead author Justin M. Feldman, a doctoral candidate at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston.
“If we as a society want to improve policing and have fewer deaths, we need better data about the circumstances of these deaths to improve training, policies and to hold police departments accountable,” he said in a phone interview.
Feldman and his team matched police-related deaths reported in the Guardian’s series “The Counted” to those reported in the CDC’s National Vital Statistics System (NVSS).
The government based its count on diagnosis codes in state death certificates indicating that “legal intervention” was involved in the death and has long been suspected of significant underreporting. The Guardian, which has suspended its count, drew on news stories and crowd-sourced information.
Researchers estimated that the Guardian missed 80 of the estimated 1,166 deaths and the CDC missed a majority of them: 643 police killings.
In most cases, official records appear to have omitted police killings because a medical examiner or coroner failed to mention law-enforcement involvement on the death certificate, Feldman said.
Police killings most likely to be missed were those by means other than firearms, particularly due to Taser shocks, and those outside the highest-income counties, the study found.
Deaths of children and blacks were more likely to be missed than to be reported in the official government count.
Some states were far more successful in capturing deaths at the hands of police than others. In Oklahoma, police killed 30 civilians in 2015, but none of those deaths was included in the federal government count, Feldman said.
Feldman proposed that states be required to report police-related deaths, like they’re now required to report some communicable diseases, and that public health agencies employ local news reports, as the Guardian did, to properly classify and count law-enforcement deaths.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Reporting program requires U.S. law-enforcement agencies to report a host of incidents, but it does not require reporting of civilians killed in police interactions, said Cassandra Crifasi, a professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Gun Policy and Research in Baltimore.
“There is mounting pressure to increase law-enforcement transparency and accountability. One necessary component to that is having an accurate count of the number of people killed by police,” she said by email.
“Understanding the basic epidemiology of a problem is the first step toward identifying potential interventions and monitoring their effects,” said Crifasi, who was not involved in the new research.
The study’s senior author Nancy Krieger, a professor at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, also called for better government data.
“As with any public health outcome or exposure, the only way to understand the magnitude of the problem, and whether it is getting better or worse, requires that data be uniformly, validly, and reliably obtained throughout the U.S.,” she said in a news release.
”Our results show our country is falling short of accurately monitoring deaths due to law enforcement, and work is needed to remedy this problem,” she said.
Our 2024 Coverage Needs You
It's Another Trump-Biden Showdown — And We Need Your Help
The Future Of Democracy Is At Stake
Our 2024 Coverage Needs You
Your Loyalty Means The World To Us
As Americans head to the polls in 2024, the very future of our country is at stake. At HuffPost, we believe that a free press is critical to creating well-informed voters. That's why our journalism is free for everyone, even though other newsrooms retreat behind expensive paywalls.
Our journalists will continue to cover the twists and turns during this historic presidential election. With your help, we'll bring you hard-hitting investigations, well-researched analysis and timely takes you can't find elsewhere. Reporting in this current political climate is a responsibility we do not take lightly, and we thank you for your support.
Contribute as little as $2 to keep our news free for all.
Can't afford to donate? Support HuffPost by creating a free account and log in while you read.
The 2024 election is heating up, and women's rights, health care, voting rights, and the very future of democracy are all at stake. Donald Trump will face Joe Biden in the most consequential vote of our time. And HuffPost will be there, covering every twist and turn. America's future hangs in the balance. Would you consider contributing to support our journalism and keep it free for all during this critical season?
HuffPost believes news should be accessible to everyone, regardless of their ability to pay for it. We rely on readers like you to help fund our work. Any contribution you can make — even as little as $2 — goes directly toward supporting the impactful journalism that we will continue to produce this year. Thank you for being part of our story.
Can't afford to donate? Support HuffPost by creating a free account and log in while you read.
It's official: Donald Trump will face Joe Biden this fall in the presidential election. As we face the most consequential presidential election of our time, HuffPost is committed to bringing you up-to-date, accurate news about the 2024 race. While other outlets have retreated behind paywalls, you can trust our news will stay free.
But we can't do it without your help. Reader funding is one of the key ways we support our newsroom. Would you consider making a donation to help fund our news during this critical time? Your contributions are vital to supporting a free press.
Contribute as little as $2 to keep our journalism free and accessible to all.
Can't afford to donate? Support HuffPost by creating a free account and log in while you read.
As Americans head to the polls in 2024, the very future of our country is at stake. At HuffPost, we believe that a free press is critical to creating well-informed voters. That's why our journalism is free for everyone, even though other newsrooms retreat behind expensive paywalls.
Our journalists will continue to cover the twists and turns during this historic presidential election. With your help, we'll bring you hard-hitting investigations, well-researched analysis and timely takes you can't find elsewhere. Reporting in this current political climate is a responsibility we do not take lightly, and we thank you for your support.
Contribute as little as $2 to keep our news free for all.
Can't afford to donate? Support HuffPost by creating a free account and log in while you read.
Dear HuffPost Reader
Thank you for your past contribution to HuffPost. We are sincerely grateful for readers like you who help us ensure that we can keep our journalism free for everyone.
The stakes are high this year, and our 2024 coverage could use continued support. Would you consider becoming a regular HuffPost contributor?
Dear HuffPost Reader
Thank you for your past contribution to HuffPost. We are sincerely grateful for readers like you who help us ensure that we can keep our journalism free for everyone.
The stakes are high this year, and our 2024 coverage could use continued support. If circumstances have changed since you last contributed, we hope you'll consider contributing to HuffPost once more.
Support HuffPostAlready contributed? Log in to hide these messages.