On police being killed and civilians killed by police

There have been lots of news for the last several years of both law enforcement officers being killed and law enforcement officers inappropriately killing civilians. If you were to watch any, and all, of the cable news, you would say that the rate of killings of both law enforcement officers and by law enforcement officers is going up. This may surprise you, but you would be wrong. The rate of killing of law enforcement officers has been stable, while those by law enforcement officers has also been stable. Are you surprised?

For instance, the figures below come from The National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund. I trust you will agree that they are unlikely to understate the figures.

As you can see, 2017 was actually the second lowest year for law enforcement officers being killed since the turn of the century. During the 1970’s, and 1980’s, the average number of law enforcement officers killed was actually higher. Please note that the number for 2001 was increased due to 9/11. I have no explanation for 2007.

Our law enforcement officers are safer now than they were when I was in the Army. In fact, in the first fifth of the 21st century, our law enforcement officers are actually safer than they were in the last third of the 20th century. But, you will never hear that on the news. Sadly, many law enforcement officers have tended to believe the mantra that they are less safe now. They are actually safer now.

But, what about statistics on people inappropriately shot by law enforcement officers. Unfortunately, those figures are impossible to come by. There is the problem that law enforcement officers are almost never convicted of an inappropriate shooting, even when the prosecution is recommended by their own chief. There is also the problem that, conveniently, while a close track is kept of law enforcement officers killed, no track is kept of inappropriate shootings by law enforcement officers. Both the Washington Post and The Guardian try to keep lists of people killed by law enforcement officials, but they have the same issue of differentiating justified killings from not-justified.  So, perhaps the only option we have is that of seeing how many people were killed by law enforcement officers. Unfortunately, this is not a good figure to use because it has a high number of justified killings. But, it is all we have.

You also need to know that the Department of Justice kept only a voluntary track of people killed by police officers until 2016 when law enforcement was finally required to report on civilian deaths. And, when they did start to keep track of people killed by police officers, they adopt the same methodology as was being used by The Guardian, which verifies that the statistics collected by The Guardian are considered accurate by the USA government. But, this also means that figures prior to 2012 are known to be low.

Unlike law enforcement officer deaths, I can draw no statistical correlations. After all, “garbage in, garbage out.” It is not until 2015 that several sources, both government and private, agree that the statistics are basically accurate. And the death rate for civilians has remained statistically stable since that time, just like officer deaths have basically remained statistically stable. What is true is that since 2015 law enforcement officers kill at about seven times the rate that they are killed. Remember that various of those killings are genuine justifiable shootings. Those statistics are simply total kills, not a judgment on justifiable or not justifiable.

We can also compare ourselves to other countries.

There is little doubt that we are a significantly more violent country than many of the First World countries. Law enforcement officers in the USA are in proportionately more danger than law enforcement officers in other First World countries. At the same time, the killing rate by law enforcement officers is also incredibly high.

Again, note the incredible violent rate in the USA versus the UK. There is little doubt that a USA law enforcement officer is significantly more likely to have to defend himself or herself than the equivalent officer in the UK. This means that a USA law enforcement officer will be drawing his or her gun much more often than a UK officer, assuming the UK officer is even carrying a gun at all. This also means that a non-justifiable homicide is significantly more likely to happen in the USA than in the UK. After all, if you do not draw a gun, it becomes much harder to kill someone.

Neither side in the law enforcement officer violence debate is willing to recognize the full range of the data. One side wishes to paint all law enforcement officers as heroes who should never be doubted. Body cameras are beginning to destroy that false image. The other side wishes to paint every law enforcement homicide as a probable murder until proven otherwise. Again, body cameras are beginning to destroy that false image. In fact, the best way to ensure that we have adequate data on which to base future policy decisions is to keep using body cameras to see what is really happening on the streets. What has been true so far is that if body cameras have shown how many law enforcement officers are truly on the side of good, they have also shown just how unacceptably high is the number of law enforcement officers who misuse the power of their authority, and who approach every situation with instant aggression that is almost designed to trigger even the most innocent of persons.

I am not answering the debates. I am merely providing some accurate data.