The Facts
The Facts and the Data
- There are over 697,000 police officers in the United States
- There are over 332,000,000 people living in the United States (1 officer for every 476 people)
- There are 55,000,000 police contacts each year
- There are over 10,000,000 crimes committed each year
- There are 495,000 VIOLENT crimes committed each year
- There are only 2,080 sustained excessive use of force complaints each year (Or 0.000038% of all police contacts)
- There are only 998 deadly use of force claims each year (Or .000018% of all police contacts)
- 95.3% or 991 or the 998 deadly force claims were with ARMED suspects
- Of the 998 deadly force claims,
456 or 45.69% were white
229 or 22.95% were black
165 or 16.5% were Hispanic
41 or 4.1% were other
and 107 or 10.7% were unknown
- There have already been 165 line of duty deaths (37 of those were murdered) this year (2021)
- There were 369 line of duty deaths (46 of those were murdered) last year (2020)
- There were 1,239 line of duty deaths in the last 5 years
- There were 2,038 line of duty deaths in the last 10 years
- There are 24,974 total line of duty deaths since the 1st recorded police death in 1786
Is Excessive Force Really Used That Often By Police?
The data indicates, NO
- You are 7x more likely to be be murdered, 15x more likely to be killed in a traffic accident, and 42x more likely to be raped then have an interaction with an officer where excessive force is used.
- In nearly half of all the unarmed cases where deadly force was used, non-lethal force was attempted first and failed.
- Data from The Washington Post shows that 23 “unarmed” black suspects were fatally shot by the police in 2018, while even fewer, 12, were shot in 2019.
- It's important to note that just because a suspect might be “unarmed” doesn’t necessarily mean they are less dangerous. An "unarmed" suspect could have a hidden weapon, could lunge at an officer, could try to run a police officer over, could push an officer into traffic or off a bridge, or try to disarm an officer.
- A study conducted by two criminal justice researchers, Jon Shane and Zoë Swenson, found that in 90% of cases involving “unarmed” suspects, the police only opened fire after they felt they were facing “an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to themselves or a third person...”
- And, before the suspects were fatally wounded, they had been “attempting to disarm an officer, drown an officer, throw an officer from a bridge or rooftop, strangle an officer, gesture as if they were armed with a real weapon, continued to keep their hands concealed despite commands, and/or charged toward an officer with apparent intent to assault.”
Are The Majority of Police Officers Really Racist?
The data indicates, NO
- According to the FBI, even though black Americans make up only 13% of the US population, they account for roughly 50% of all murders, and 38% of violent crimes overall.
- Black men commit murder 572.8% more than white men, rape 146.1% more, robbery 617.9% more, aggravated assault 203.3% more, and violent crimes in general 263.6% more than white men.
- Sadly, and unfortunately, black on black crime accounts for the majority of black homicide deaths each year. In New York City in 2019, 96% of all shooters and shooting victims were people of color. People of color also accounted for 73.8% of rape victims, and 81.3% of the rape suspects; 69% of robbery victims, and 93.3% of the robbery suspects; and 79.5% of felony assault victims and 86% of the assault suspects.
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