AT THE LEADING EDGE OF RESEARCH AND SERVICE
FOREFRONT Police Killing Data Proves Less than Black and White Professor’s research exposes troubling inconsistencies in how the police use of lethal force is reported
JIM BLOCK
P
Professor Franklin Zimring released an eye-opening report on killings of and by U.S. police.
TRUTH SEEKER:
rofessor Franklin Zimring sees cold data as the best way to assess the hotbutton issue of deaths caused by police. Accessing that data, however, is a daunting task, due to what he calls the “scandal” of incomplete and unreliable information. “It’s essentially voluntary in terms of when the police turn in this data,” says Zimring, who released a report in January 2015 on killings of and by police. “And when it is sent, it’s not carefully classified.” A renowned criminologist, Zimring studied police records spanning 35 years with co-author Brittany Arsiniega, a Berkeley Law doctoral candidate. At times, the information gaps were so wide that they were left scouring Wikipedia for cases. “What we need is one national repository of data on the fatal use of force by police officers,” Zimring says. “It should have an audited reporting system and careful investigation by police departments in tracking such occurrences.” The report found a 75 percent drop in the number of U.S. police officers killed on the job between 1977 and 2012, and a 30 percent S P R I N G 2015 | T R A N S C R I P T |
11