What Counts as Police Violence? A Case Study of Data in the CATO Institute’s Police Misconduct Reporting Project

Abstract

Background This article presents a case study about the role of data in the CATO Institute’s Police Misconduct Reporting Project and reflects on what constitutes police violence. Analysis Augmenting this data aggregation work, the article turns to additional data projects focused on recording police crime and misconduct to gather a broader understanding of incidents of police violence beyond acts that cause death. Conclusion and implications It is only when we look at data on acts of violence that occur when an officer is on duty and off-duty, with or without a firearm, that a clearer sense of the traumatic cycle of policing can be understood. This way of looking at police data requires both broader practices of “copwatching,” as well as a broader definition of what counts as violence.