FBI director: There's no evidence of 'epidemic rates' of police violence

(Image credit: AFP/Getty Images)

published 17 October 2016

While speaking at the International Chiefs of Police Conference in San Diego on Sunday, FBI Director James Comey said the idea that "biased police are killing at epidemic rates" is making it more difficult for officers to do their jobs and harder for departments to recruit.

Videos and photos on social media are spreading the belief that police are "violent and racist and unfair," Comey said, but the federal government has "no idea of whether the number of black people...being shot by police" in recent years "is up, down, or sideways." Without this information, "we have anecdotes," and a "small group of videos serves as an epidemic," he continued. Like in any industry, there are "bad cops," but "the truth is this: Police officers are overwhelmingly good people" who just want to help, and people who say otherwise have "no idea" what they are talking about.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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