Q&A of the Day – Are we just more aware of officer involved shootings? Part 1
Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.
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Today’s entry: Brian question for you to look into. Are we just more aware of officer involved shootings than we used to be or are there more of them? For example, authorities made a point of saying they immediately released videos in the Daunte Wright shooting and the one that just happened in Columbus.
Bottom Line: It’s a great question. For the purpose of this illustration, I’m going to focus on those shot and killed by police officers in the line of duty as those instances are at the root of the debate. These are also well documented by the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The answer to your question is the trend doesn’t fit the narrative. First, here’s a look at the number of deaths attributed to officer involved shootings. Between 2010 – 2019:
- 4,017 deaths, or an average of 417 per year
Over the prior decade we averaged more than one death resulting from an officer involved shooting per day in the United States. This illustrates a couple of harsh realities. First, how many life and death situations law enforcement professionals are confronted with in this country. Second, how generally responsible law enforcement professionals are when using lethal force given that every one of these incidents is investigated and well documented. Especially in the era of police car cams and police body cams. As I recently cited, there are 22,268 crimes committed every day. Consider how many high stress encounters law enforcement professionals constantly encounter. Then consider how few issues we have in context. To that end...
If the question is about whether we’re more aware or if there’s more activity, that context is already key. News media can find a new related story every day if they wanted to make an issue of officer involved shootings.
So, if there were 417 on average over the previous decade, what happened last year?
- 436 deaths from officer involved shootings
Right in-line with the previous averages when population growth is accounted for. So no, there’s nothing which occurred last year that’s unusual about the level of deaths attributed to officer involved shootings. There is this year however, though it’s probably not what you think. I’ll address those facts in the second part of today’s Q&A.
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