New statistics reveal mixed findings on police violence

Police use of force has overall remained stagnant since the 2020 murder of George Floyd and subsequent worldwide protests, with some jurisdictions reporting an increase in use of force, according to data released Wednesday. 

While a U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics survey found that an estimated 350,000 people reported facing physical force by police each year from 2002 to 2011, data from Mapping Police Violence found that between 2017 and 2022, U.S. police used force on 300,000 people a year.

Samuel Sinyangwe, the founder of Mapping Police Violence, told The Hill that the data “highlights the limits of incremental reforms and underscores the need for policy interventions that replace police with new solutions for public safety.”

An additional 200,000 people each year faced displays or threats of force from police, and an estimated 100,000 of forceful encounters resulted in injuries. 

Floyd died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes. His murder led to widespread scrutiny in regard to the use of neck restraints and changes in local and state policies restricting the practice. 

While Mapping Police Violence found that by 2021 there was a nearly 90 percent drop in the use of the tactic, the data also found that police response to policy restrictions simply led to less reporting of the use of neck restraints.

Half of the agencies in the database reported an increase in their use of force in the two years following Floyd’s murder. 

In the database, use of force included deploying stun guns, chemical sprays, K-9 attacks, neck restraints, beanbags and baton strikes. 

For every one person killed by police, the report states, hundreds face nonlethal force.

For instance, out of 259 people, where one was killed, 36 people were tased; 14 were sprayed with chemical spray; eight people were hit with batons or impact weapons; four people were bitten by K-9s; and two people faced nonlethal police shootings. 

More than 80 percent of the people impacted by police use of force were unarmed. A majority of those police used force against were not involved in a violent crime, but 56 percent of people who experienced police force were reportedly arrested.

Those who were most impacted by police use of force were the unhoused. Between 11 percent and 44 percent of the people police used force against were reportedly homeless.

But the data also found that police used force of any kind — both lethal and nonlethal — against Black people at more than three times the rate of force deployed against white people. Eight in 10 police agencies reported anti-Black disparities in overall force.

Black people accounted for 33 percent of people reported to have experienced police use of force in 2022, though they make up only 14 percent of the population in jurisdictions where race and ethnicity data is available, while white people accounted for 33 percent of those impacted, despite making up 45 percent of the population.

Different factors played into the use of force across jurisdictions. Agencies with larger budgets used more force, and jurisdictions that increased police budgets were more likely to report increases in the use of force.

Police agencies that used deadly force more were also more likely to report broader problems with use of force. These agencies used more force overall and more “less lethal” weapons such as tasers, batons and pepper spray.

Mapping Police Violence has laid out several policy recommendations to help address the use of force, including funding case studies of jurisdictions that have the lowest use of force rates. 

“Doing so could help build an evidence basis for solutions that might actually work to reduce police violence in other places as well,” the report states. 

The organization is also calling for state public records laws to classify police use of force records as public records. Thirty-five states now prevent police records from being disclosed to the public.

The group is also demanding routine audits that ensure compliance with official data collection programs.