Edmund D. Fountain
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The New York Times
The New York Times reports today that the Justice Department has announced it will begin an effort to collect nationwide data on deadly police encounters. According to the Times, the plan represents "the most ambitious effort the federal government has ever undertaken to track police killings and the use of force."
The announcement itself, from Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch, is summarized on the Department of Justice's website. The summary quotes Lynch and identifies the goals of the initiative as, "increasing transparency and building trust between law enforcement and the communities we serve."
The initiative is a direct response to the stipulations set forth by The President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing, implemented by President Obama via an executive order in December 2014, in the wake of the police killings Eric Garner and Mike Brown.
Per the Task Force, the DOJ will “collect, maintain and report data...on all officer involved shootings, whether fatal or nonfatal, as well as any in-custody death.” The data collected will also cover a variety of other non-deadly "use-of-force" situations.
Full story here via The New York Times, or read the report from the Department of Justice here.