Arrest-Related Deaths in the United States,
2003-2005
By Christopher J. Mumola
BJS
Policy Analyst
The Death in Custody Reporting Act of 2000
(Public Law 106-297) required the U.S.
Department of Justice to begin a quarterly
collection of individual death records for all
persons incarcerated in State or local
correctional facilities, as well as “any
person who is in the process of arrest.”
Collection of death records from local jail
facilities began in 2000, followed by a separate
collection from State prison authorities in
2001.
At
the time the Death in Custody Reporting Act was
passed, only two States (California and Texas)
collected information on all types of
arrest-related deaths. For the remaining 48
States and the District of Columbia, the new
DCRP collection was the first attempt to perform
a comprehensive count of all arrest-related
deaths. In California and Texas, State statutes
required the reporting of all arrest-related
deaths to the State Attorney General’s office.
Defining
deaths “in the process of arrest”
BJS
had to define the term “in the process of
arrest,” specified in the Death in Custody
Reporting Act (PL 106-297).BJS
staff consulted with the International
Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), the
National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA), and
criminal justice researchers to identify which
circumstances involved an “arrest process.”
All deaths of persons in the physical
custody or under the physical restraint
of law enforcement officers were
included.
This
resulted in the reporting of 75 deaths over
three years in which no criminal charges
were involved. Law enforcement responses
to people exhibiting mental health
problems
accounted for 44 of these cases,
while another 9 cases involved persons who
had to be restrained by police for medical
transportation. In another 22 cases, the
reason for law enforcement involvement was not
specified, but the record indicated that no
criminal charges were involved. The deaths of
any other persons not subject to an attempted
arrest were excluded, including bystanders and
law enforcement officers killed during an
attempted arrest.
During 2003-2005, 380 law enforcement officers
were killed, and nearly 175,000 assaulted.
Homicides by law enforcement officers made up
55% of all deaths during arrests by State and
local agencies.
In each year between 2003 and 2005, homicides
accounted for a majority of all reported
arrest-related deaths. During this period,
States reported
1,106
arrest-related homicides which
represented 55% of arrest-related deaths from
all causes.
Homicides by law enforcement officers accounted
for 1,095 arrest-related deaths.
Drug and alcohol intoxication accounted for
13% of all deaths, followed by suicides
(12%), accidental injuries (7%), and illness
or natural causes (6%). For 157 deaths (8%)
a definitive cause was not reported.
Homicides by law enforcement are the only type
of arrest related deaths measured by another
national statistical program — the
Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR)
collected by the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI). The
SHR
and DCRP measures of homicides by law
enforcement have one important difference. The
SHR
program includes only counts of homicides by law
enforcement in which the use of force was ruled
“justifiable.” Deaths due to unjustified
use of lethal force by officers are counted with
other murders. The DCRP counts of
homicides by law enforcement include all deaths
that resulted from the use of lethal force
A total of 1,095 law enforcement homicides were
reported to DCRP, and 1,082 justifiable
homicides by police were reported to
SHR.
Taking the higher count reported by each State
for each year, there were a total of
1,489 reported law enforcement homicides.
Across both programs nearly all of the decedents
were male, the average age was 33 years old, and
over 80% were killed by a handgun.
Three-quarters of the law enforcement homicides
reported to DCRP involved arrests for a violent
crime. Except for suicides (51%), violent
offenders were involved in less than 30% of all
other causes of death. Public-order offenders
accounted for 8% of homicides, followed by
property (4%) and drug offenders(2%).In 2%
of cases, law enforcement personnel did
not intend to charge the person, but took them
into custody for reasons such as
medical or mental
health needs.
Criminal charges were not reported for 8% of law
enforcement homicides.
Among all persons killed by law enforcement
officers in the process of arrest, 9% would have
been charged with the murder or attempted murder
of a law enforcement officer, 17% would have
been arrested for assaulting an officer, and 2%
would have been charged with obstruction of
police activity or resisting arrest.
80% of law enforcement homicides involved the
use of a weapon by the arrest subject, 96%
involved the use of a firearm by officers.
In 80% of the law enforcement homicides, the
deceased reportedly used a weapon “to threaten
or assault” the arresting officers. In
17% of the homicides, the arrest subject
grabbed, hit or
fought with the arresting officers.
Few homicides by law enforcement involved
persons who appeared intoxicated during the
attempted arrest (18%). A third (36%) of persons
killed by officers attempted to escape or flee
from custody. About 4% of persons killed by
police had been placed under physical
restraints during the attempted arrest.
Nearly all law enforcement homicides (96%)
involved the use of firearms by officers.
Handguns were used by officers in 84% of the
homicides, and rifles and shotguns in 17%.
Three deaths were caused by an officer’s use
of a nightstick, baton, or conducted-energy
device such as a Taser or stun gun.
No weapons were reportedly used in 3%
of law enforcement homicides.
During 2003-2005, 380 law enforcement officers
were killed, and nearly 175,000 assaulted
Fewer than half (159) of these deaths were
homicides. Accidental deaths during arrests
(221) accounted for the majority of officer
deaths in the line of duty. The number of
persons killed by officers in the process of
arrest from 2003 to 2005 (1,095) was less than
1% of all reported assaults on law enforcement
officers (174,760) over the same period.
Increasing number of arrest-related deaths
involved the use of Tasers or other
conducted-energy devices
Conducted-energy devices (CEDs), such as stun
guns or tasers, were involved in
36
arrest-related deaths reported to DCRP during
2003 through 2005.
In
about half of these deaths (17), the CED was
reported as the weapon that caused the death.
In the remaining 19 deaths, the use of a CED was
indicated, but it was not reported as the cause
of the death*. The involvement of CEDs in
arrest-related deaths increased from 3 deaths in
2003 to 24 in 2005. Every type of arrest-related
death was reported among the 36 deaths involving
the use of CEDs. The most common cause of death
was intoxication (10), followed by accidents
(8), and homicides by law enforcement (7). One
death was attributed to illness and another
death was a suicide. In 9 cases where CED-use
was reported, a cause of death could not be
determined.
Arrests for violent crimes were involved in 16
of the CED-involved deaths, and 8 deaths
involved property crimes. In two cases, the
deceased was detained for mental health care,
and in five cases no information on criminal
offense was reported.
*Among medical and law enforcement experts, the
ability of CEDs to cause a death is a
subject of debate. Due to reporting
gaps, these 36 cases do not represent a
complete count of all deaths in which the use of
a CED was involved.
Total
36
–
Taser related deaths
Year
2003 - 3
2004 - 9
2005 - 24
Cause of death
Homicide by law enforcement - 7
Intoxication - 10
Suicide - 1
Accidental injury - 8
Illness - 1
Other/unknown - 9
Most serious offense
Violent - 16
Property - 8
Drug - 2
Public-order - 3
No criminal charges intended - 2
Offense not reported - 5
Many
of the arrest-related deaths undergo lengthy
investigations by prosecutors, police
departments, and coroner’s offices to determine
a cause of death or decide a legal disposition
of the case. It took up to 15 months to finalize
cause of death information for some cases.
While DCRP is the only national statistical
program that measures all types of
arrest-related deaths, two other national
programs measure law enforcement homicides. Law
enforcement agencies can submit Supplementary
Homicide Reports (SHR) as part of the FBI’s
Uniform Crime
Reporting (UCR) program. The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention’s National Center for
Health Statistics (NCHS) also compiles mortality
statistics, including a category for law
enforcement homicides. The
SHR
records include basic data on the type of
homicide, the relationship between the deceased
and assailant, and demographic characteristics
of the deceased. Law enforcement agencies
describe the event as a “justifiable homicide by
police.”
NCHS counts of legal intervention deaths are
available at:
http://wonder.cdc.gov/
Connecticut reported 9 In custody Deaths during
the 2003-2005 study period…these 9 deaths were
reportedly caused by homicide.
Source: Bureau of Justice
Statistics:
