The prevalence of fatal police shootings by U.S. police, 2015–2016: Patterns and answers from a new data set

Abstract

PurposePrevious studies on police use of fatal force in the United States are limited to specific cities. This is the first analysis of its type to rely on incident-level national data and to establish state-level base rates for police shooting fatalities. MethodsPublicly available data from the Washington Post were used to model the data, which cover the period from January 2, 2015 to December 29, 2016 (n=1948). ResultsAlthough the data are limited, the patterns are not consistent with the national rhetoric that the police are killing Black people because of their race and that officer-involved shooting fatalities are increasing; fatalities are generally stable across both years and the evidence shows those who are attacking are more likely to be killed. The data help establish state-level base rates for fatal police shootings, which has yet to be done. ConclusionsThe United States government should develop a nationwide use of force database to assist police executives, elected leaders and researchers in understanding police use of force. Future research should rely on the situational context of the shooting and the micro-level factors the courts consider when analyzing the legal aspects of use of force instead of sociodemographic factors.