[a fool in paradise]

Shootings of civilians by police officers reached a 20-year peak in 2013, even as the incidence of violent crime in America went down overall. According to FBI statistics, police in the United States killed 1,688 people between 2010 and 2013. The actual number of black and brown people shot by police is almost certainly much higher, but a lack of data means that no one knows for sure how many people have been killed. Very few of America's 12,000 police and sheriff's departments report officer-involved shootings. But based on the data that has been reported, according to a study by ProPublica, young black men are 21 times more likely to be killed by police than young white men.

This "study" has been challenged.

Dangerous distortions about cops shooting black men: An oft-cited figure is based on incomplete data and questionable math (BY John R. Lott, Jr. / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS / Tuesday, December 2, 2014, 3:28 PM)

[Olog-hai]

Surprised that the NYDN let Lott print that.

[Gaffer]

According to FBI statistics, police in the United States killed 1,688 people between 2010 and 2013

The FBI does often get the data for its "statistics" from cities and municipalities and is therefore reliant on the validity of such to an extant.

Years ago, the City of Atlanta was caught by the FBI manipulating murder data. The city in effect was misclassifying the types of deaths to lesser acts.