US police killings vastly undercounted by federal gov’t: Study
Al Jazeera
Researchers determine federal count does not reflect 55 percent of deaths where police violence played a role.
Most deaths from police violence in United States over the past four decades have been mislabelled or undercounted in the federal government main database, according to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Washington and published in The Lancet.
The US National Vital Statistics System recorded police violence as playing a role in 13,700 deaths from 1980 to 2018, the study’s authors said. But by examining three non-governmental, open-source databases, they estimated the true total was more than 30,800, or 55.5 percent of those killed by police.
The study noted that the undercounting was highest for non-Hispanic Black Americans, at 59.9 percent; followed by 56.1 percent for non-Hispanic white people and; 50 percent for Hispanic people – raising questions about how race affects medical examiners and coroners record deaths.