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The vast majority of people killed by police in the United States die at the hands of local law enforcement officers.
That’s the big takeaway from a new research brief published by the Racism-based Violence Injury and Prevention Lab at the Boston College School of Social Work.
The lab, which examines how racism, violence, and trauma affect the well-being of emerging Black adults aged 18 to 29, found that local law enforcement officers were responsible for 86.7 percent of fatal encounters that took place between 2013 and 2023. State and federal officers combined to account for 13.3 percent of fatalities during the same time period.
The findings were based on data from Mapping Police Violence, a nonprofit group that tracks police shootings, and Fatal Encounters, a national database that documents cases in which people were killed by police.
“These results show you where our focus should be when putting together policies to change things,” said Robert O. Motley Jr., an assistant professor at BCSSW who directs the lab. “It needs to be at the local level and people need to be able to see that.”
Roberty Motley, Jr. Photo by Caitlin Cunningham, BC photography.
Motley and his colleagues created an interactive map to visualize the results of their study. The map enables users to sort through data at a granular level, providing clarity on which, when, where, and how people have been killed by police over the past 10 years.
In less than one minute, users can find out how many unarmed Black men were killed in Massachusetts in 2016. Or how often Latinx people were tasered in California in 2020. Or how many times armed, 30- to 41-year-old women were shot in Florida in 2022.
Motley described the map as a vital resource for scholars, policymakers, and law enforcement officials who are working to create a society free from unwarranted police violence and its negative effects on health and well-being.
“The map allows users to interact with the data, customize their inquiries, and draw specific insights that relate to their communities or their areas of interest,” said Motley, who’s been studying the interplay between racism, violence, and trauma for more than a decade. “It’s trying to say, ‘Hey, we know disparities exist, but how can we drill down in a data-driven fashion to find out which specific places need reforms, whether it’s at the practice level or even the policy level?’”
The lab’s findings, revealed in both the map and the research brief, reaffirmed that Black, Latinx, and Native American people are killed by police officers at higher rates than white people.
In particular, Motley’s team found that Black adults faced significantly higher odds of being killed by local law enforcement officers than their white counterparts.
The researchers also discovered:
- The average age of individuals killed by local law enforcement officers was 36.
- Unarmed individuals were more likely than armed individuals to be killed by federal and state law enforcement officers.
- Federal law enforcement officers killed more people in Texas than in any other state.
Motley said he’s in the process of creating a think tank to address racial disparities in policing, especially in the use of force. He plans to convene social scientists, community stakeholders, and policymakers to help guide policy changes, enhance relationships between police and communities, and improve the well-being of people affected by police violence.
“We want to create sustainable solutions at the policy level and at the practice level to foster social justice and equality,” he said.
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