About Time-Congress Is Finally Going to Make Local Law Enforcement Report How Many People They Kill

Over the weekend, tens of thousands of marchers rallied against police brutality, standing in solidarity with families who have lost loved ones to police violence. With public scrutiny zeroed in on deaths at the hands of law enforcement, one thing is noticeably missing: A federal record of just how many people die in police custody each year.

This, however, could be changing. Last week, Congress passed the Death in Custody Reporting Act of 2013. Currently awaiting Obama's signature, it mandates that states receiving federal criminal justice assistance grants report, by gender and race, all deaths that occur in law enforcement custody, including any while a person is being detained or arrested. This would include events like the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, says Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a sponsor of the bill, in an interview with Mother Jones.

The bill also mandates that federal law enforcement agencies annually gather and report these deaths to the US attorney general, who in turn has two years to analyze the data, determine if and how it can be used to reduce the number of such deaths, and file a report to Congress.

The bill is backed by groups like the NAACP, which argue that it will increase accountability and transparency. The process it envisions would collect more data than the FBI's existing Uniform Crime Reporting Program, which only tallies what are considered "justifiable" homicides by police, a designation that can criminalize victims of police killings. As DIY databases have cropped up—the Killed By Police Facebook page, for instance, gets its stats by aggregating news stories—the bill could establish a more accurate and official repository.


http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/12/death-custody-reporting-act-police-shootings-ferguson-garner