The FBI might end their use of force data collection program without posting any of their data. It’s probably because of what their data would say about policing. A thread. (1/x)
Back in 2015/16, the FBI started a use of force data program after Fatal Encounters and Mapping Police Violence, then WaPo and the Guardian, embarrassed the feds by tracking 2-3x more police killings than the ~400 cases/year the government claimed existed. mappingpoliceviolence.org
The federal program tracks killings *and* serious injuries by police. In states that already track this data (like CA), there are *even larger racial disparities* than in killings data alone. HALF of all people harmed in these incidents are UNARMED. data-openjustice.doj.ca.gov/sites/default/…
The FBI didn’t want that data to ever be made public. They adopted an internal rule (during the Trump admin) that they wouldn’t share data on any police dept until 80% of the nation’s law enforcement joined the program voluntarily. That is not happening anytime soon, if ever.
It’s never been more than 55% participation in the program, at that level FBI won’t share anything useful at all. They even adopted *another rule* that they wouldn’t source info from other databases like Mapping Police Violence/FE that post 95% of all police killings online. So…
The FBI program isn’t happening. Not because they couldn’t do it. They *already* collect data on crime and assaults on officers from 12,000-15,000 police departments every year - and they choose to post *that* data online. They just chose to keep data on police violence secret.
Good news is we don’t need the FBI to tell us anything about police violence, they have no interest in transparency. But 22 states now have their own use of force data collection programs. And crowdsourced databases provide better data on killings by police than the government.

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More from @samswey

8 Sep
Two-thirds of all police officers who’ve died in Florida this year have died from Covid. This Governor’s policies have directly contributed to that.
In fact, given the obscene rates of Covid in Florida and the Governor’s policy encouraging this spread, Ron DeSantis might single-handedly pose more of a threat to the lives of law enforcement in the state than any other human being.
Read 4 tweets
7 Sep
Black men have higher college enrollment rates than white men at every income group. But Black college graduates end up with only 2/3 as much wealth as white high school dropouts because of systemic racism. insightcced.org/wp-content/upl…
Median wealth of households headed by:

Black college graduates - $23,400
White high school dropouts - $34,700
insightcced.org/wp-content/upl…
I’m surprised this isn’t a larger part of the conversation on white male college enrollment rates. White men aren’t going college, perhaps, because existing systemic advantages allow them to obtain more wealth than other groups regardless.
Read 4 tweets
30 Aug
Despite having 58% of the US Black population, the South has remained under white domination throughout history (except for maybe Reconstruction). Voter suppression has enabled white reactionaries to hold the majority (often supermajority) of Southern state and federal offices.
Narrow exceptions to this are the CBC in the US House, where Congressional districts were designed intentionally to break through this white dominant structure. And now we’re seeing Senators like Warnock who put a dent in the Senate demographics. But the overall dynamic remains.
It’s still almost all white (and Republican) governors, state legislative majorities, US Senators, and Electoral Votes coming from the South. By design. Maybe VA and GA (we’ll see about FL, but not optimistic) are starting to break that trend, but it’s the longstanding dynamic.
Read 4 tweets
9 Jun
The FBI use of force data collection is a joke. They track substantially fewer incidents than we’ve already published online at mappingpoliceviolence.org and they say they won’t publicly share their data anytime soon. A distraction.
They could supplement their data collection by referencing media reports and existing databases (MPV, Fatal Encounters, WaPo) but instead they decided to rely *solely* on voluntary data collection from 18,000 police agencies, 73% of which aren’t currently choosing to participate.
They could decide to publish the data they *have* collected, which covers 27% of agencies. At least we could do something with that. But nope, the FBI decided they won’t share any department-level data until 80% of law enforcement participates - which likely will never happen.
Read 7 tweets
22 Apr
Here’s how often each Columbus police officer used force against people from 2001-2018. Some used force at substantially higher rates. But how often were they held accountable? A thread. (1/x)
Regardless of how much force they used, few officers were disciplined. 99% of incidents resulted in no discipline. Even for the officers with the worst records. Among officers who used the most force (40+ cases), only 1 officer was disciplined more than reprimand/counseling.(2/x)
That one officer in the group who was suspended was Adam Coy. But he wasn’t fired until last year when he killed Andre Hill, an unarmed Black man. He was charged with murder in February and facing trial. But this wasn’t a surprise given the data. Let’s take another look... (3/x)
Read 12 tweets
12 Apr
Let’s talk about the police accountability laws that just passed in Maryland. A thread. (1/x)
First, Maryland repealed its police bill of rights law that gave special protections to officers accused of misconduct. That law put police in charge of holding themselves accountable and kept communities from having insight into the process. That’s being replaced with... (2/x)
It’s replaced with a new system that empowers community. Each county will have a community-led police accountability board that appoints members to a committee that formally charges officers with misconduct. Police chief can increase, but not reduce, the recommended discipline.
Read 9 tweets

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