Dem bill would require data on police shootings

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) has reintroduced legislation requiring the Justice Department to maintain data on how many people are killed by police officers each year.

Cohen, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, introduced the legislation in December but filed it again for the new Congress that started this month.

{mosads}No reliable and comprehensive statistics on police shootings currently exist due to the lack of enforcement of a 1994 law that directs the Justice Department to collect the data.

The Tennessee Democrat said the data should be publicly available in the aftermath of high-profile deaths of African-American men after conflicts with police officers in Ferguson, Mo.; Staten Island, N.Y.; and Cleveland.

“Before we can truly address the problem of excessive force used by law enforcement we have to understand the nature of the problem and that begins with accurate data,” Cohen said in a statement identical to when he introduced the bill in December.

Cohen’s bill would require local police departments to report when officers use “excessive force” and detail the date of the altercation, identifying characteristics like race and gender of the officer and civilian, an explanation of why the officer employed deadly force, and any alleged criminal behavior from the civilian.

The publicly available data wouldn’t include personally identifying information about the officer or anyone else involved.