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Editorial: Smartly tracking police shootings

 
The Justice Department’s new effort to track police shootings and other uses of force is long overdue.
The Justice Department’s new effort to track police shootings and other uses of force is long overdue.
Published Oct. 28, 2016

The Justice Department's new effort to track police shootings and other uses of force is long overdue. If law enforcement agencies comply in good faith, the project should shed light on the adequacy of police training, disparities in the use of force against minorities and on larger trends — such as the role guns, drugs or mental illness play in violent situations — that pose a threat to officers and the public. State and local law enforcement agencies should be induced to participate and face the threat of financial penalties if they don't. And voters need to hold elected mayors and sheriffs accountable for holding their departments to public scrutiny.

The department announced the move earlier this month, in what would be the most comprehensive effort ever to track the use of force by law enforcement agencies across the country. Under the plan, the department will gather data on the use of force by federal agents and help state and local agencies voluntarily report similar data. A pilot project is set to begin early next year involving major federal agencies, from the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration to the Marshals Service. In addition, the department plans to collect information from state and local agencies on all custody deaths — not only shootings, but also suicides and natural deaths.

This data will fill a critical void. The department lacks a complete picture of police shootings across the country, relying instead on a hodgepodge of media reports to chronicle the use of force by police around the nation. With the string of fatal shootings by police across America in recent months, this database will offer a snapshot of what's happening and to whom — an important step in examining the circumstances leading to the violence and whether force is being applied disproportionately to minorities or in certain communities.

While the project will open a window on the use of force, there is still an information gap. Local departments — who interact with their communities far more on a daily basis than do federal authorities — still are required to report only fatal encounters. The Justice Department will spend a modest sum to encourage local law enforcement to publicize a broader range of actions, from stops and searches to shootings and other uses of force. This is not good enough. This project will have little use if it fails to bring about a uniform method for reporting and cataloging use of force cases. And that cannot happen if local police agencies are exempt. Washington needs to provide a template for all law enforcement agencies to follow, monetary help to those in need for carrying it out, and financial penalties for noncompliance or delays in reporting.

Law enforcement is well-versed in reporting a host of details on individual incidents, and this new effort would not overly tax officers on the street, support personnel or computer systems of any modern agency. The information could better protect officers and the public alike, and act as a springboard for repairing relations between police and their communities. On a more basic level, the public has a right to know how the law enforcement agencies that it funds and endows with the power to arrest and employ lethal force perform. The Justice Department should plug the gaps in this effort and put it in place as quickly as possible, and those elected to oversee city police departments and county sheriffs should recognize their duty to participate.