guardianjamiles

For our database we have defined a “police killing” as any incident where the actions of a sworn police officer can be reasonably be understood to have been the cause, or a primary cause of a person’s death. This means that someone struck with a vehicle in an accident with a police cruiser would be counted. We would not count, for example, someone who was running from police and was struck by a civilian vehicle and killed.

I remind people as often as I can, that we are “counting” without making a value judgement. We don’t include accidents because we are trying to report big numbers, or because trying to imply some wrongdoing-- but so that we have complete information, and that at the end of the year we can say X number of people were killed by law enforcement this way or that way. If-- and I stress this is entirely hypothetical-- we found some large percentage of police vehicles that hit civilians and killed them were speeding or driving without sirens or something like that-- it would be a useful uncovery.

The BJS used to keep this information, as a matter of fact, but stopped counting at some point when it became clear just how profoundly the reports were undercounting. The FBI and the CDC also keep some numbers tied to law-enforcement related deaths, but none are comprehensive enough to be particularly useful. But no, as of yet, no federal agency has reached out for a collaboration.

The biggest challenge is simply the scale of the project and the fact that we have to piece this puzzle together from states and local jurisdictions with wildly different protocols on what information they release and how.

Obviously we’ve been working on this project because we believe this is an important issue and deserves more reporting and more conversation. In that vein, having as many outlets as possible reporting on the issue can only be a good thing, and especially one with a reputation and a reach like The Washington Post. I think when you look at the similarities in our findings, it only strengthens each other's work.

We are using different methodologies, metrics and the projects are definitely not identical-- but two respected news organizations maintaining publicly accessible databases on a hotly contested issue is great for national dialogue and for news consumers.

Well, although it's frustrating to have to keep reiterating ourselves, I do understand it to be honest. In our national conversations, debate always seems to inevitably fragment into extremes. This debate has become "cop apologists" vs. "cop haters"-- often thanks to a minority of trolls at the ends of the spectrum, when really the difference for most people is one of positionally, and who you give the benefit of the doubt to.

If you spend time with police officers, vs. people in overpoliced communities, your opinion is likely to be colored by that. I find that in the end, if you can get past the trolling and the talking points, most people agree that this data should be tracked.

Well you’re not wrong, but neither is what we have suggested in our report. We have simply stated, as a matter of fact, that relative to racial/ethnic breakdown of the US Census, that black Americans are killed disproportionately.

Some people will inevitably attribute this to individually racist police, others to systematically racist policing, others to excessive criminality in black communities, some to poverty, ad infinitum… Our report is not making a causal claim, but is plainly stating what has happened through 6 months this year. There may be (and likely are) countless reasons for why these numbers are they way they are-- and we will certainly be looking at new lenses through which to interpret the data as we move forward.

Michelle Rodriguez… think about it...