Deaths in Police Custody Under-Reported: RAND
The toll of fatalities is estimated at 1,000 a year, but the lack of “comprehensive” data collection suggests the number is probably significantly different—undermining efforts to reduce such deaths, according to a RAND Corporation study.
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Protest in Des Moines, Iowa, 2011. Photo by Justin Norman via Flickr
Despite a Congressional mandate under the Death in Custody Reporting Act, enacted in 2013, the nation still doesn’t have reliable data about how many people die in law enforcement custody each year, says a RAND Corporation study.
“Such information is critical to support strategies to reduce deaths that occur in law enforcement custody; to promote public safety through fair and appropriate responses to reported crimes, calls for service, and police-community encounters; and to build trust with communities,” write the authors of the report released Wednesday.
According to available estimates cited by the researchers, at least 1,000 people die in police custody yearly, from causes ranging from police shootings, excessive use of force, and deaths from other causes including homicide, researchers say.
But the gaps in data suggest the number is probably significantly different, researchers say.
The study says data collection has been hampered by the lack of reporting from many jurisdictions around the country, undermining efforts to prevent or reduce future deaths in custody.
The researchers also called on jurisdictions to provide data on all “critical incidents” involving excessive use of force, whether or not they resulted in deaths, in order to help design better policies to avoid them.
“The lack of a comprehensive, national data collection has precluded effective studies, analysis, and research findings on the factors that are associated with critical incidents and which of those factors may be addressed by changes to law enforcement training or policy,” the report says.
The authors of the report include: Duren Banks, division vice president for Applied Justice Research at RTI International; Michael G. Planty, head of RTI’s Center for Community Safety and Crime Prevention; and Madison Fann, a public health analyst in the Division for Applied Justice Research at RTI International.
Other authors were: Lynn Langton, senior research criminologist in the Division for Applied Justice Research at RTI International; Dulani Woods, quantitative analyst at the RAND Corporation; Michael J. D. Vermeer, a physical scientist at the RAND Corporation and co-lead of the Priority Criminal Justice Needs Initiative; and Brian A. Jackson. a senior physical scientist at the RAND Corporation and co-lead of the Priority Criminal Justice Needs Initiative.
The report was based on a workshop organized as part of RAND’s Priority Criminal Justice Needs Initiative, in partnership with the Police Executive Research Forum, RTI International, and the University of Denver.
The full report can be downloaded here.
James Van Bramer is Associate Editor of The Crime Report
