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Wednesday, March 13, 2019

While Death Penalty Executions Have Gone Down, Police Still Meting Out Death Penalty On The Streets

California's new governor, Gavin Newsom, has imposed a moratorium on the death penalty in California.

However, the death penalty is being meted out by police officers around the country.  And while convicted murderers and rapists are spared the death penalty, often innocent citizens are not.

2019
Killed By Police* lists 197 people who have been killed by police in the US this year (and we're only in the middle of March.)

Death Penalty Info lists 3 people killed so far this year as a result of death penalty executions.

2018
The Root tells us 2165 people were killed by police in 2018.
Mapping Police Violence puts the number at 2166 people killed by police in 2018.  They also have a lot of related information and graphics - including comparisons between cities, crime rates, and other factors which show huge differences.
The Washington Post lists only 998 people killed by police in 2018.   (Including 7 in Alaska.)  These are only people shot and killed by police.  The others include all deaths caused by police.

Death Penalty Info lists 25 people dying by state sanctioned death penalty executions in 2018.  (Of that number, 11 are identified as Black or Latino.  13 (more than half) were in Texas.)




Killed By Police Killed By Execution
2018    
2166                 
25
2019
197              
3



When police shoot and kill 'suspects' - the victim gets no  presumption of innocence, no trial, no jury. No appeal.  And police shooters almost never get prosecuted, let alone convicted.


OK.  Let's acknowledge that police have a difficult job.  They meet most of their 'customers' at some of the worst times in their lives.  They're asked to intervene in crimes being committed, often, by people with guns and other weapons.  They have to make fast decisions.   Most of us don't want to do these jobs.

Chart from PEW Research

Does It Have To Be This Way?

But when we look at the numbers, only a relatively small percent (less than 1/3) of police officers ever report firing their gun while on duty!  From the  Pew Research article (and reflected in the chart):

"To start, male officers, white officers, those working in larger cities and those who are military veterans are more likely than female officers, racial and ethnic minorities, those in smaller communities and non-veterans to have ever fired their service weapon while on duty. Each relationship is significant after controlling for other factors that could be associated with firing a service weapon." 
The article points out that there is no cause and effect relationship proven between these characteristics.

My main point for using the data is to show that the vast majority of police NEVER even fire their guns in the line of duty.

In a 2000 Associated Press article we get this quote:
"Well over 95 percent never shoot their weapons here," said New York City Police Commissioner Howard Safir.

But we don't know if that's because they aren't ever in situations where they apprehend armed suspects or because they handle those situations differently from officers who do shoot.  (Well maybe someone does, but this study didn't make any such claims.)

But the data do suggest that shooting suspects is NOT necessary in most cases.

Are there ways to reduce the number of police caused deaths?

I would also suggest that officers who do kill suspects are also victims of systems that make that option more likely.  They see innumerable shootings on television, in movies, and in video games they participate in the shootings.  They are nearly all given guns, which makes shooting (rather than other options, like talking, like waiting, like non-lethal weapons) an easy option.  (We tend to use the tools we have to solve most problems.**)  They don't necessarily get adequate training for dealing with the mentally ill.  Internalized racism (again, television and movies play a big part here) will make many if not most officers more likely to assume the worst for suspects of color.  (And officers of color are also the victims of internalized racism so when they are the shooters it's not proof that racism wasn't involved.)

Use of Force Project offers specific systemic actions that reduce deaths by police.  (In this list the wording is reversed - what departments DON"T do that they should.  There's a lot of info on this site, including a long list of police departments (including Anchorage) and which of these these standards they meet.)

  1. "Failing to require officers to de-escalate situations, where possible, by communicating with subjects, maintaining distance, and otherwise eliminating the need to use force
  2. Allowing officers to choke or strangle civilians, in many cases where less lethal force could be used instead, resulting in the unnecessary death or serious injury of civilians
  3. Failing to require officers to intervene and stop excessive force used by other officers and report these incidents immediately to a supervisor 
  4. Failing to restrict officers from shooting at moving vehicles, which is regarded as a particularly dangerous and ineffective tactic
  5. Failing to develop a Force Continuum that limits the types of force and/or weapons that can be used to respond to specific types of resistance
  6. Failing to require officers to exhaust all other reasonable means before resorting to deadly force
  7. Failing to require officers to give a verbal warning, when possible, before shooting at a civilian
  8. Failing to require officers to report each time they use force or threaten to use force against civilians"

I think it's important as fewer Americans die because of death penalty executions, to remember that in essence, police who kill suspects are, de facto, applying the death penalty.


Notes:

*Killed By Police lists a cumulative number for 2019 (197), but they don't for 2018.  Each page is a month, and so I looked for other sources rather than try to count each specific death they list.  The sources I used for 2018 did not have (at least I couldn't find) 2019 data.

**I learned about The Law of The Instrument long ago in a research methodology book  It goes something like this:  If you give a a child a hammer, it will find that most things need to be pounded.

4 comments:

  1. Some stats you forgot to include.

    2010
    The Officer Down Memorial Page reports 180 deaths in the line of duty.
    2011
    The Officer Down Memorial Page reports 187 deaths in the line of duty.
    2012
    The Officer Down Memorial Page reports 141 deaths in the line of duty.
    2013
    The Officer Down Memorial Page reports 128 deaths in the line of duty.
    2014
    The Officer Down Memorial Page reports 158 deaths in the line of duty.
    2015
    The Officer Down Memorial Page reports 164 deaths in the line of duty.
    2016
    The Officer Down Memorial Page reports 171 deaths in the line of duty.
    2017
    The Officer Down Memorial Page reports 152 deaths in the line of duty.
    2018
    The Officer Down Memorial Page reports 150 deaths in the line of duty.

    For Third Straight Year, Police Suicides Outnumber Line-Of-Duty Deaths
    Law enforcement agencies across the country lost at least 159 officers to suicide in 2018.
    https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/for-third-straight-year-police-suicides-outnumber-line-of-duty-deaths_us_5c2d110de4b05c88b70542fa

    https://www.policefoundation.org/general-resources/use-of-force-infographic/

    Oliver

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oliver, what is your point? I don't want to put words in your mouth, so please explain how these numbers relate to what I wrote.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Your statement ‘OK. Let's acknowledge that police have a difficult job.’ I would argue that it’s a bit more than difficult when several hundred lose their lives each year enforcing the law or suicide.
    The second link to The National Police Foundation stated in 2008 (I was not able to find newer stats) there were 67 million face to face contacts with police, deaths (and not every death in an execution) resulted in one in 67,000 about 0.0015. I would hardly call that falling under your ‘The Law of The Instrument’. And finally, I would bet there are more white male officers who have had military experience so one would assume that they would be more likely to have fired a weapon.
    It would interesting to find out how many face to face contacts the Anchorage police have in a year and how many ended in a shooting. Your hypothesis that police are executing people on a whim is just plain silly.

    Oliver

    ReplyDelete
  4. 1. Deaths of Police Officers on Job - Police aren't even in the top ten deadliest professions per capita. See http://time.com/5074471/most-dangerous-jobs/
    2. The Law of the Instrument reference is simply saying that because they have guns, that's the easiest option when things get hairy. Nevertheless, I gave stats that showed that the vast majority of cops never use their guns on duty. So there is a minority and they should be studied.
    3. Not sure what you're saying about white males with military experience being more likely to have fired a weapon. As military? Or as cops? If as cops, I'm not sure why that would be true, unless because of PTSD or something.
    4. Show me where I said or even implied the idea of 'on a whim.' My basic point was although the death penalty is less common in the US after conviction, in practice people are dying before they are even arrested in large numbers. That's all I was trying to say. All the rest was documenting that.

    ReplyDelete

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