FBI will finally create nationwide database of police shootings, use of violence

On Thursday, the Justice Department announced a new initiative to compile nationwide statistics on use of force by law enforcement agencies, a response to the string of high-profile police-involved killings in recent years. The FBI will seek comment from state, local, and tribal agencies, then launch a pilot program in early 2017 to create a comprehensive database of in-custody deaths by local and federal law enforcement agencies and non-fatal violence by the federal officers. The data will be put online.

The program will seek out non-fatal data from state, local, and tribal agencies, but while a 2014 law, the Death in Custody Reporting Act, compels state and local agencies to report in-custody fatalities or face a financial penalty, the Justice Department can't force local authorities to turn over non-fatal statistics. FBI Director James Comey told Congress last year that the lack of such federal numbers is "embarrassing," "unacceptable," and "ridiculous." "People have data about who went to a movie last weekend, or how many books were sold, or how many cases of the flu walked into the emergency room," he said, "and I cannot tell you how many people were shot by police in the United States last month, last year, or anything about the demographic."

Civil rights advocates called the program a belated step in the right direction. "I can't believe two years into this crisis that we're still having conversations about data," ACLU lawyer Kanya Bennett tells The New York Times. And although the initiative grew out of recommendations by a commission President Obama created in 2014, "this is essentially being punted to the next administration," Bennett added. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Thursday night that without federal statistics, it is "very, very hard" to know how prevalent police violence is, what causes it, or whether problematic police-involved violence and death is on the rise or just getting more publicity.

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