The Limitations of Government Databases for Analyzing Fatal Officer-Involved Shootings in the United States

• Date: 01 March 2019
• Author: Jordan Taylor Jung,Howard E. Williams,Scott W. Bowman
• DOI: 10.1177/0887403416650927
• Published date: 01 March 2019
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0887403416650927

Criminal Justice Policy Review

2019, Vol. 30(2) 201 –222

© The Author(s) 2016

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DOI: 10.1177/0887403416650927

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Article

The Limitations of

Government Databases

for Analyzing Fatal

Officer-Involved Shootings

in the United States

Howard E. Williams1, Scott W. Bowman1,

and Jordan Taylor Jung1

Abstract

Federal government databases recording officer-involved shooting fatalities are

incomplete and unreliable. Voluntary reporting to the Supplementary Homicide

Report (SHR), the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS), and the Arrest-Related

Death Program (ARDP) are subject to underreporting and classification errors.

The same shortcomings apply to statewide reporting in California and Texas, the

only states with mandatory reporting requirements. Content analysis of open

source records identified officer-involved shooting fatalities that occurred in the

United States from January 1, 2006, through December 31, 2015. Those data were

compared with data from the government databases. Analysis revealed 7,869 officer-

involved shooting fatalities, an average increase of 51.8 incidents per year. Fatalities

increased from 594 in 2006 to 1,007 in 2015—an increase of 69.5% in 10 years.

Government data sources reported a low of 46.0% of incidents to a high of 75.3%,

depending on the reporting year. Open source research reveals 30% to 45% more

cases than official federal or state databases and can reveal much more data about

other critical questions. The history of federal program efforts suggests it is unlikely

that government recording of data on officer-involved shooting fatalities will improve.

Government reporting programs have produced decreasingly effective results.

Current web-based data collection efforts suffer from many of the same limitations

exhibited in the federal programs. One promising option for improved data collection

includes funding an independent party, such as a university, to collect data from open

1Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, USA

Corresponding Author:

Howard E. Williams, Texas State University, 601 University Drive, San Marcos, TX 78666, USA.

Email: howardewilliams@msn.com

650927CJPXXX10.1177/0887403416650927Criminal Justice Policy ReviewWilliams et al.

research-article2016

202 Criminal Justice Policy Review 30(2)

sources and supplement that data with public records requests and the currently

collected official government data.

Keywords

officer-involved shooting, use of force, Supplementary Homicide Report, National

Vital Statistics System, Arrest-Related Death Program

Introduction

Arguments over the appropriate use of deadly force by police have waged for decades.

News media and social researchers have published reams of paper describing and ana-

lyzing police training, tactics, and decision-making skills. Elected officials have repeat-

edly debated changes to public policy that were intended to resolve community, social,

and political issues arising from police shooting incidents. Recent events, however,

have stirred public debate to a pitch that the United States has not seen in many years.

August 9, 2014, Darren Wilson, a White police officer with the Ferguson, Missouri,

Police Department, shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old African

American man (Grand Jury for the Circuit Court of St. Louis County, 2014; U.S.

Department of Justice, 2015). Immediately following the shooting, purported wit-

nesses claimed that Officer Wilson shot Mr. Brown even though Mr. Brown had his

hands up and was imploring the officer not to shoot him (Grand Jury for the Circuit

Court of St. Louis County, 2014). Public allegations of police racism followed, and,

for the next several nights, people demonstrated in Ferguson. The Federal Bureau of

Investigation (FBI) quickly joined the investigation. November 24, 2014, the St. Louis

County Grand Jury declined to indict Officer Wilson for any criminal wrongdoing

(Grand Jury for the Circuit Court of St. Louis County, 2014). That decision resulted in

renewed rioting in Ferguson and in continuing antipolice protests across the country.

March 4, 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a report clearing Officer Wilson

of any criminal violations of federal civil rights laws.

During the nearly 7-month investigation of this incident, American news media

debated the implications of the events on that August afternoon. During those debates,

journalists and pundits continuously posed questions they could not answer. How many

people have the police shot and killed? What was the racial and ethnic composition and

frequency of the people police shot? How many of those people were unarmed?

Although those questions were central to the issues regarding the shooting in Ferguson

and critical to the policy debates regarding the subsequent public reaction, no one could

provide definitive or authoritative answers. Journalists were not the only ones unable to

answer those important questions. February 12, 2015, in a speech to students at

Georgetown University, FBI Director James Comey said it was ridiculous that there are

no accurate national data on the number of times people were shot by police in the

United States. He added that the FBI would push to improve data collection so officials

and the public could better understand the relevant issues (Devlin, 2015).