Posted on 04/10/2015 6:50:01 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
As the nation grapples with the latest incident of a police officer fatally shooting an unarmed black man this time in South Carolina many have asked a simple question: How often does this happen?
The answer is: No one knows for sure, exactly. Even the Federal Bureau of Investigations Uniform Crime Report, considered the gold standard of crime data since the 1930s, is in many ways out of date and flawed. The nations 18,000 law enforcement agencies are not required to compile data on officer-involved shootings.
At a time when shootings in North Charleston, S.C.; Ferguson, Mo.; and Madison, Wis., are raising awareness about the issue, such data would be crucially important to understanding where problem areas might be and how to address them, say many activists and analysts. Indeed, other police reforms, such as body cameras, independent investigations, and reforms to the grand jury system would all be of only limited value without transparent statistics, they say.
Ultimately, the only way forward, they add, is a federal law compelling police departments to compile the data and send it to the FBI. While there are no signs such a law is imminent, an array of smaller moves together with the growing chorus of criticism suggests there are the beginnings of movement on the issue.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
>>Just wondering....how many police officers have been killed in the line of duty?<<
Not sure, but it’s pretty eerie when we’ve gotten to the point of counting casualties on either side...would you not agree?
Almost like the Vietnam body count reports.
Good question... Anybody know the figures for how many cops have been killed by black people? Just curious.
“Why we don’t know how many Americans are killed by police”
It would also be interesting to see how many white folks are murdered by black thugs every year.
What cracks me up is the assumption that cops feel free to fire at blacks.
I’ve got a neighbor who is a former Detroit cop and he says that most cops are probably quicker to fire on a white suspect because it doesn’t result in the same immediate outrage. However he points out that whites don’t do the typical things that might result in a cop firing his weapon.
However he points out that whites dont do the typical things that might result in a cop firing his weapon.
Even after I got mugged and beaten, the cop acted like *I* was the problem.
Officers friendly have decided that we the public they are supposed to serve are their enemy.
This will not end well for anyone.
Maybe it’s dumb luck (so to speak) but “most” officers I have actually met have been professional and not gratuitously nasty. I have met a jerkly hard boiled character or two as well.
Maybe luck, maybe your police are truly professional. I have run into a few of them, but around here they are as rare as hen’s teeth.
The vast majority of officers I encounter seem to think that anyone not wearing blue is to be demeaned, intimidated and treated like subhuman filth.
And give us an American version of the Gestapo, yeah that'll be much better. /s
102 in 2013—the last year for complete stats. There are fewer police deaths now than since 1944. The trend has been downward since 1985. This come home alive is pure hype—no offense, but there are many more dangerous professions...
What’s the score in Chicago?.
Yeah I haven’t met more than a couple of cops who were jerks.
No, shootings are the #1 by a good margin. Traffic accidents (of all types) come in second.
If you've had all bad encounters with cops, maybe it might be you. No excuse for cops out of line, but to propose that all leos are thugs is ridiculous.
One thing that does bother me is cops who physically have no business being patrol officers.
I towered over the last cop I talked to and I’m an average 5 foot 9, 165 lbs. I had an easy 6 inches on the guy. I can see a cop like that left with no other recourse than potentially lethal force.
I’d really rather see all cops be 6 foot or taller and 180lbs. They at least have a fair shot at subduing a perp before resorting to greater force.
Depends on the officer and a lot of times the department they work for I have found. My local city police department has a horrible reputation in the community and among other law enforcement agencies. The state police pretty much put one strike against any officer trying to join them from this department right off the bat. That being said what few encounters I have had with them have been positive or neutral. On the other hand I have friends who are not criminals, worst offense a speeding ticket who have had horrible encounters with this department.
On the other hand I live near a national park and no one I have talked to has had any good encounter with the Rangers that work that park, they are pretty much universally hated by the locals as arrogant, smart mouth pri*ks.
This treating people as us vs. them crap has the average person wanting nothing whatsoever to do with a police officer on or off duty. And worse the two sets of laws one for the people and one for those in government is really getting old fast and causing hatred for cops and government employees in general. They screw up, break the law, treat people like crap, hurt and kill them and they are not held accountable whether it is a cop or some bureaucratic puke at the VA.
Let me guess,,,,The reason we do not have this meaningless statistic collated, is because we do not have an overall nationwide federal agency managing all aspects of local policing.
The only time the left loves body counts is like in Iraq, when they had a political agenda.
Imagine when you have a complaint against the local police. Now you can go to the Chief, many times directly. You can inflame the local papers. You can go to the city council and often get solid results.
Wait till it is a federal police. It’ll be like complaining to the IRS, the TSA, or the VA.
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