I spent the last few weeks going through police shooting data from 12 cities, including Fort Worth, to answer the question many had after #AtatianaJefferson became the 6th person since July to be killed by a FW officer. Here's what I found. star-telegram.com/news/local/cri…
1. Compared to 11 cities of similar size, Fort Worth police shoot and kill no more often than those other police departments. They fell in the middle for total fatal shootings, and just above average for total shootings, both nonfatal and fatal.
2. When considering population, however, Fort Worth police had the second-highest fatal police shooting rate per 100,000 people in 2019, and the third-highest such rate in 2018.
3. Of the 9 total shootings this year, 55% of people shot at were black. Black people make up 18% of Fort Worth's population.
Different experts gave theories for the cause of this disparity - some blamed violent crime rates, others disagreed. All said more context was needed.
Different experts gave theories for the cause of this disparity - some blamed violent crime rates, others disagreed. All said more context was needed.
4. Data is important, but it also doesn't tell the full story. As @PoliceLawProf told me, data is important "not because data will let us diagnose every possible problem. It can help us know when we need to look deeper and if there is — and why there is — a problem.”
@PoliceLawProf 5. National data on police shootings is insanely inadequate. There is no consistent, government run reporting on police shootings. Most data comes from media, like the Washington Post's Fatal Force project. I put this into a sidebar bc it was so important. star-telegram.com/news/local/cri…
@PoliceLawProf 5a. And, important to note, of the 12 cities I looked at, Fort Worth was one of 4 that did not have an online database for these shootings. That matters, because databases allow us to look at patterns and trends in these shootings.
@PoliceLawProf 6. Indictments in police shootings are rare. Of the 495 I looked at, only 3 resulted in an officer being indicted on criminal charges.
And if Aaron Dean, who killed Jefferson, is indicted, he will be the first officer in FW to be indicted for a fatal shooting in at least 24 years
And if Aaron Dean, who killed Jefferson, is indicted, he will be the first officer in FW to be indicted for a fatal shooting in at least 24 years
@PoliceLawProf 7. Lastly, this story took several weeks, many open records requests, lots of data analysis and hours of work from my editors and I. This is the kind of work local journalism does — Consider subscribing to @startelegram or your local paper to support it. star-telegram.subscriber.services/?GA_network=g&…
