Fatal Encounters

A step toward creating an impartial, comprehensive and searchable national database of people killed during interactions with police

An acquittal feels like a full circle

Support Fatal Encounters Donate Today! I’ve just got a short message today. Today is our last day for this crowdfunding campaign. We’ve got about 14 hours left. I’ve said this before, but I guess it’s … Read more

Manufacturing justification

Support Fatal Encounters Donate Today! In my last few posts, I’ve written about the formulaic ways news media cover police killed by people and people killed by police. These formulas allow police to predict and … Read more

How the media misleads on police violence Part 3

Support Fatal Encounters Donate Today! My first post in this series was called “How the media misleads on police violence Part 1,” and it regarded ways the media (and government) effectively prevent people of this … Read more

From researcher Christopher Cox

The United States government does not keep accurate records about law enforcement-related deaths. My boss does instead. Fatal Encounters operates from D. Brian Burghart’s dining room table, where other researchers and I are helping him to build a … Read more

New York Times Analysis

Sarah Cohen, Editor of the New York Times computer-assisted reporting team and co-writer of this story that ran about Fatal Encounters today, was kind enough to allow me to post their spreadsheet which shows the … Read more

RN&R Series, FE 6

Wow, that’s pretty hilarious. I just realized I never posted the final piece of the newspaper’s series. It ran on December 31, 2014. (Yes, I know it says January 1 on the website, but the … Read more

RN&R Series, FE5

Eyes wide open What should citizen oversight of law enforcement look like? By D. Brian Burghart  Particularly since Michael Brown’s death at the hands of police in Ferguson, Missouri, a national dialogue has been taking place … Read more

Lists, links and databases

I want to mention a couple of my associates in this effort to create a national database of people killed by police, and to talk about our different approaches to how we collect and disseminate the information. … Read more

Idaho’s Public Records Problem

People and news organizations often ask me how government goes about hiding information about police activities. I’ve written about it fairly extensively, but here’s a pretty good example how Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden’s office … Read more

Fatal Encounters FAQ

One of the things that is cracking me up as the national media start noticing there’s something happening over here is that they don’t really get what this project is doing. I think they’re pigeonholing … Read more