WASHINGTON – Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday endorsed a long-sought effort to more accurately track incidents of deadly force used by police and cases of officer deaths. Congress passed legislation last month that will require states to report the deaths of all people in law enforcement custody or during arrest to the federal government in wake of national unrest stirred by a series of killings of young black men by white officers. Those deaths exposed deep flaws in how both civilian and police deaths are recorded by the FBI. For years, the bureaus databases have relied on voluntary reporting by law enforcement agencies. In the cases of civilians killed by police, local agencies have reported only those deaths that were ruled justifiable.
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 22:03:12 +0000