On average more than 1,000 people are fatally shot by police each year, according to data collected by the Washington Post.
In 2022, the number of people shot and killed by police—1,096—reached a record high, as confidence in police reached a 30-year low. Fewer than half of all Americans reported having confidence in the police, according to a Gallup poll, the lowest level since 2020 in the wake of the death of George Floyd. Put another way, the majority of Americans have little or no confidence in law enforcement.
Stacker cited data from the Washington Post's fatal police shootings database to look at the rate of fatal police shootings across every state and Washington D.C. in the U.S. since 2015. Rates are calculated using 2020 Census population data. If no demographic has at least five incidents, rates by demographic are not included.
The data presents troubling trends indicative of systemic issues throughout the institution of law enforcement nationwide. Despite representing just 12% of the U.S. population, Black people are killed by police at higher rates than any other racial group in 45 states. In four out of the remaining five states, police shot and killed Native Americans at the highest rate. Only in New Hampshire did white people represent the largest share of people killed by police.
One out of every five victims identified by the Washington Post had a history of mental illness or was experiencing mental distress when they were shot. However, not every law enforcement officer is trained or required to be trained to recognize and respond to mental health crises.
Some studies suggest Crisis Intervention Team training can lead to an increase in instances where verbal negotiation is the highest level of force used by responding officers. CIT-trained officers may also be more likely to make referrals to mental health units and less likely to make arrests. Though data on the efficacy of CIT training in reducing the use of force among police officers is limited, some departments aim to train 100% of their force in the CIT program. And yet, deploying lethal force is ultimately a judgment call—one not always easy to make, one that can be made in error, and one that is subject to the training and morality of the responding officer.
There are times when police officers must use lethal force in defense of their lives or the lives of others. Since 2016, 83% of fatal police shootings victims were armed, most often with a gun. The presence of a weapon alone does not warrant lethal force, nor does the prevalence of armed victims justify the increasing number of people killed by police each year. This data, however, can illustrate the unique and complex dangers officers must face when responding to any given situation. Hundreds of others killed by police in this same time frame were either unarmed, armed with a replica weapon, or wielding a replica as though it were a real firearm.
One of the most troubling trends is a lack of institutional accountability. As fatal police shootings have increased, fewer of these incidents are reported to the federal government. The Washington Post found that only one-third of the fatal police shootings included in its database were also present among FBI data.
While all agencies are asked to report these incidents, compliance to report homicides through the Uniform Crime Reporting System—including officer-involved shootings—is mandatory only for federal law enforcement. Negligence, clerical errors, miscommunication, and willful noncompliance are just some of the reasons for discrepancies.
Until agencies nationwide, at all levels, enforce consistent and complete data collection on the use of deadly force, systemic change will be harder to achieve.
