For the first time in the history of the United States, the federal government will be monitoring the use of force by police departments across the nation. The announcement has come after a wave of high-profile killings, which critics say were racially motivated.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a press release that the time has come to begin keeping an official record of use of force:
Accurate and comprehensive data on the use of force by law enforcement is essential to an informed and productive discussion about community-police relations.
The initiatives we are announcing today are vital efforts toward increasing transparency and building trust between law enforcement and the communities we serve. In the days ahead, the Department of Justice will continue to work alongside our local, state, tribal and federal partners to ensure that we put in place a system to collect data that is comprehensive, useful and responsive to the needs of the communities we serve.
Some news outlets and reporters have gathered as much data as they possibly can on police killings, but the information comes with some caveats: