This database contains records of people who’ve been killed through interactions with law enforcement since Jan. 1, 2000.
We believe we include complete records for all 50 states and DC back to 2000, but there are two data points that are not designed to be analyzed by outside entities and will result in inaccurate results: disposition and mental state. Our racial data is the best that exists, but it’s pretty spotty and gets worse prior to 2013. We’ll be working on backfill for the next few months. We do weekly updates on Tuesdays, so be aware we’re usually a few days behind. Sometimes incidents that weren’t previously reported in the media (or that we missed) crop up because of lawsuits, new media reports or other reasons. Government data also suggests that vehicle-pursuit deaths are often not reported in news media, so our data certainly understates that total (outside of 2013-14, which include the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data from USA Today). To add incidents that aren’t in the database, please use the upload form. If you spot an error, please let us know through the corrections form.
After you’ve read the above caveats, the data in a spreadsheet is right here for download. Or you can use our interface below for simple analysis.
Here’s How the Database Works
Users can search from fifteen criteria: name, city, county, state, race, age, gender, year of death, date of injury resulting in death, if mental illness was present, victims disposition, cause, submitter, circumstances, and the police agencies responsible.
- If someone wanted to search for all the people in Nevada who were killed during interactions with police in which police knew before or upon arrival the person had symptoms of mental illness: they’d type “Nevada” in the Main Search Box, then select “Mental Illness” from the Filter Search Drop-Down, type “Yes” in the Filter Search Box, and click “Search”.
Some Extra Examples
- For all records in January 2014: Type “January” in the Main Search Box, select “Year” from the Filter Search Drop-down, type “2014” in the Filter Search Box, and click “Search”.
- For all Victims named Henry in California: Type “Henry” in Main Search Box, sort by “State”, type “California” in the Filter Search Box, then click “Search”.
- For all records in which law enforcement were aware of signs of mental crisis when they arrived: Leave the Main Search Box blank, select “Mental Illness” from the Filter Search Drop-Down, type “Yes” in the Filter Search Box, then click “Search.
Beware, though, calling up 23,000 records will crash some older browsers.
For volunteers, please, please, check the a few details here before you start inputting data. Just the last name, no state necessary. You guys work so hard, I hate to throw out somebody’s work because the incident is already in the database.