Cops kill Native Americans at a rate 5X that of whites and 3X of Blacks. Why?
About this series
Lee Enterprises’ Public Service Journalism team has spent more than a year digging into the causes and implications of Native Americans’ disproportionately high rates of fatal encounters with law enforcement.
Through public records requests, dozens of interviews, the examination of lawsuits and multiple reporting trips to Native American communities both on and off tribal land, reporter Ted McDermott has worked to understand the systemic forces that contribute to this trend — and to hear many personal stories of how these deaths have reverberated within Indigenous communities.
Future stories will examine fatal encounters that have occurred on and off tribal lands in South Dakota, where such deaths are particularly common.
PARMELEE, S.D. — Weldon Poor Bear received a powerful gift on Father’s Day 35 years ago: the birth of identical twin sons.
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He fondly recalls raising them in the traditions of their native Lakota heritage, with sweat lodges, ceremonial pipes and sun dances. There were baseball games and cross-country meets — and his son Adam’s ambition to become a police officer.
But memories are all that remain of Poor Bear’s biological children.
Near midnight on March 14, 2018, Poor Bear stood outside his house on the Rosebud Indian Reservation and watched, then listened, as Adam was shot and killed by a tribal police officer.
Weldon Poor Bear stands in the front yard of his home in Parmelee, South Dakota, on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, in May 2023. Five years earlier, Poor Bear was in the same yard, witnessing a police chase that ended with his unarmed son being fatally shot by a Rosebud tribal police officer.
Adam was unarmed, according to official records in the case.
It was a profoundly personal loss for Poor Bear, who had already lost Adam’s twin, Arthur, to suicide a decade before.
But Adam’s killing is also part of an alarming and rarely discussed trend that has made Native Americans more likely than any other racial group to die in encounters with law enforcement.
Despite witnessing some parts of Adam’s fatal encounter — including seeing him run from police and hearing the gunshot that ended his life — Poor Bear remains largely in the dark about why and how his son was killed that night.
While accurate counts and solid information are difficult to come by, one thing is clear: Poor Bear is far from alone in mourning a Native American loved one killed by police — and searching in vain for answers.
Adam Poor Bear (left) and his brother, Arthur, are shown in this 2008 photo. Adam — whose nickname was “Skinny” and whose Lakota name was Mato Ohitika — died after a Rosebud Sioux tribal police officer shot him in 2018. Arthur died by suicide a decade earlier.
A Lee Enterprises Public Service Journalism Team investigation examined deaths of Native Americans in encounters with law enforcement over the past 10 years, with a focus on the on- and off-reservation communities of South Dakota, where such fatal encounters are particularly common.
Interviews with dozens of surviving family members, law enforcement officers, attorneys and others — as well as reporting trips to Native American communities both on and off tribal land and the examination of lawsuits, police records and other documents and data — give new insight about the forces that have been fueling these deaths.
This investigation found:
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Across the United States, Native Americans died at a significantly higher rate than any other racial or ethnic group in police encounters between 2017 and 2020.
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A lack of funding for police in tribal communities contributed to fatal law enforcement incidents both on and off tribal lands.
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Loved ones of those who died in police pursuits, police shootings and jails struggle to access even the most basic information about how these deaths occur.
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A lack of accountability and oversight in the case of such deaths exacerbates distrust between Native Americans and law enforcement.
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Such deaths often go unreported by media.
A Lee Enterprises Public Service Journalism Team investigation examined deaths of Native Americans in encounters with law enforcement over the past 10 years. Interviews with dozens of surviving family members, law enforcement officers, attorneys and others – as well as reporting trips to Native American communities both on and off tribal land and the examination of lawsuits, police records and other documents and data – reveals new insight about the forces that have been fueling these deaths.
Indigenous people excluded from spotlight
According to its most recent data[1], the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that Native Americans died as a result of law enforcement interventions at a rate of 1.6 per 100,000 in 2020. That’s more than five times the rate for whites, who died at a rate of 0.3, and nearly triple the rate for Blacks, who died at a rate of 0.6.
Tonia Black Elk, one of the lead organizers of Native Lives Matter[2], said such fatal police shootings are “so prevalent now” in the relatively small Indigenous community that “we’re all related to somebody, or somebody has multiple people in their family” who have died this way.
“The cops are doing this so much, in such a fast-paced way, that we’re all becoming related through this,” Black Elk said.
Law enforcement officials interviewed as part of this series argued that officers work hard to avoid such deadly outcomes.
In an email response to questions, Robyn Broyles, a Bureau of Indian Affairs spokesperson, wrote that police on tribal land work to “keep Native people safe in their homes and communities.”
“BIA and tribal law enforcement officers are not just employees working on reservations. They are most often tribal members themselves, with personal connections and a desire to make Indian Country a safer, healthier, more prosperous place,” Broyles wrote. “As such, these officers know the history of their neighbors and are intimately connected to the communities and law enforcement entities that surround reservations. This community relationship is a defining characteristic of what makes working in OJS unique and relevant to tribal communities.”
While the deaths of Black Americans at the hands of police have drawn significant media attention and public scrutiny, the fact that Natives are even more likely to die in such encounters has been largely overlooked — even by reformers, Black Elk said.
“We get left out of all talks of police reforms,” Black Elk said. “We get left out of all talks of community control of the police. We get excluded from everything.”
A 2018 report[3] from the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights suggested a lack of attention may be connected to a lack of reporting.
Having their elders sent to boarding school or suffering from addiction “likely contributes to the moment that an Indigenous person finds themself encountering the police,” one expert said.
“The best available data suggests that Native Americans are being killed in police encounters at a higher rate than other racial groups, but these killings may be undercounted by federal agencies and are underreported by the media,” that report said. The report also found that “undercounting is compounded as tribes often lack media presence on their reservations and lack monetary resources to create and disseminate these public records.”
The CDC used “death certificates, coroner and medical examiner records and law enforcement reports” to produce its data. Public databases that seek to compile such fatal encounters, on the other hand, rely on news reports to produce databases that track law enforcement killings by race, gender and other factors.
A Lee Enterprises analysis of three of those online databases – Fatal Encounters[4], Mapping Police Violence[5] and The Washington Post’s Fatal Force[6] tracker — identified 29 Native Americans killed in such encounters in 2020, while the CDC counted 40 deaths that year. The disparity between their counts appears to confirm the notion that some Native deaths in law enforcement encounters go unreported in media.
Sunny Red Bear, an action organizer[7] with the NDN Collective, an activist group based in Rapid City, South Dakota, said the publicly available data is not merely inaccurate but also “misconstrued.”
“What’s happening is that the truth isn’t being told, that it’s not being talked about,” Red Bear said. “It’s being sugarcoated and covered up and swept under the rug.”
The four directions imagery on a home on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota on Monday, Oct. 16, 2023.
South Dakota is where most Native Americans die at police hands
With 324 federally recognized reservations[8], 574 tribes, and 87% of the 3.7 million people who identify only as American Indian or Alaska Native living off[9] tribal land, it is difficult to generalize about the causes of each of the hundreds of Indigenous people killed by police over the past two decades. Local and individual circumstances vary widely.
In an effort to hone in on the causes and effects of high rates of fatal encounters between Native Americans and law enforcement, Lee’s investigation centered on South Dakota, where Native Americans represent about 8.5% of the state’s population but were victims of 75% of the fatal police shootings since 2000, according to data compiled by the NDN Collective[10].
Future stories in this series will focus on fatal police encounters between Native Americans and local police in Rapid City, tribal police on the Rosebud Indian Reservation and Bureau of Indian Affairs police on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation.
South Dakota is one state in a region of the northern Plains where a recent study[11] by the economist Matthew Harvey[12] suggests Native people die in police encounters at an alarmingly high rate relative to whites, when adjusting the data to account for population disparities.
Harvey’s paper focused in part on the Ninth Federal Reserve District[13], which extends from Montana to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. There, Harvey found that Native American men had 14 times as many fatal encounters with police as white men over the period from 2000 to 2017. Using the same criteria, Native American women had 38 times as many fatal encounters with police when compared to white women.
The numbers are so high that Harvey initially had a hard time believing them.
“I honestly ran the numbers at first, and I’m like, ‘This can’t be right. This has to be wrong. My code is not good,’” Harvey said. “But then I went back and ran it again, and I’m like, ‘No, the code is right. This is just — this is striking.’”
The sun sets in St. Francis, S.D., on the Rosebud Indian Reservation on Monday, Oct. 16, 2023.
Police woefully underfunded in Indian Country
Municipal and state police departments have jurisdiction outside of reservations. But the federal government plays a major role on tribal land, where the BIA’s Office of Justice Services[14] largely funds law enforcement.
In some cases, personnel from OJS police tribal citizens directly, at a tribe’s request. But in most cases, tribes contract with the BIA to operate their own police departments. And when someone is shot on tribal lands, the FBI is tasked with investigating.
That’s a job the FBI treats with “the utmost seriousness,” FBI Public Affairs Specialist Diana Freedman wrote in an email response to questions. Agents, she added, “spare no effort in establishing the facts.”
In annual reports produced for Congress, the BIA acknowledged that public safety and criminal justice programs in Indian Country are woefully underfunded.
The bureau’s most recent report[15], which covered 2021, found total law enforcement needs for tribes amounted to $1.7 billion — but that only $256.4 million was spent.
“Overall, Indian country BIA public safety and justice is funded at just under 13% of total need,” the report said. It also said that just 3,781 people were employed in these positions as of 2021 and that “an additional 25,655 personnel are required to adequately serve Indian country.”
The result is police departments that are seriously understaffed, said Charles Addington, who served as the director of the BIA’s Office of Justice Services from 2017 until 2020 and is now chief marshal for the Quapaw Nation’s law enforcement department.
Broyles acknowledged that “funding and resource limitations do impact law enforcement programs in Indian Country as it affects a program’s ability to hire and retain critical police and correctional programs personnel needed to safely police and staff correctional facilities. It also creates challenges with updating aging police and correctional facilities.”
She noted that the BIA is working “on several strategies to support recruitment and retention. ”
Fewer cops mean more likelihood of force being used
Crime has festered on tribal land, and federal data shows violent crime rates have been found to be[16] more than 2.5 times as high on reservations as off.
“I think everything’s related to crime rates,” Addington said. The more crime, he added, the more you’re “increasing the probability that you’re going to encounter someone that you may have to have deadly force or any kind of force with.”
When those encounters do happen, “the fewer law enforcement officers you have working these reservations, the more dangerous it is for everybody,” according to Walter Lamar, who is a citizen of the Blackfeet Nation and a former deputy director and acting director of law enforcement for the BIA.
Having too few officers “puts the officers at much greater risk,” Lamar said, and “puts the citizens of the reservation at much greater risk,” because when police are outnumbered and overwhelmed “there is a much greater chance there’s going to be some level of force used.”
Another factor that increases the odds of a deadly encounter, Addington said, is the prevalence of substance abuse on reservations and the fact that there are “very, very, very few” opportunities for treatment near reservations.
“If (a suspect is) under the influence of some type of narcotics and you encounter them,” Addington said, “it increases the probability that you’re going to have to take some type of force, or they’re going to do something that they normally wouldn’t do.”
And when understaffed and underfunded tribal or BIA police have difficulty keeping up with the calls and emergencies confronting them, Addington said, they don’t have time to properly train for such situations.
“While avoiding all fatal encounters is not a realistic expectation in the law enforcement field, the BIA Indian Police Academy does an excellent job providing quality classroom and role-playing exercises that teach officers safe and effective arrest techniques, use of force, and non-lethal tactics,” wrote Broyles, of the BIA.
The dynamics that fuel Native Americans’ high rates of fatal encounters with police aren’t contained by the borders of reservations.
Though it has not been intensely studied, evidence[17] from Harvey’s study suggests Natives die even more often off tribal lands than on them, including in border towns and big cities where Native Americans endure high crime rates and rely on predominantly non-Native police to provide safety.
A mud puddle reflects the sunset on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota on Monday, Oct. 16, 2023.
Native people face hurdles to getting records
When Natives are killed in police encounters, bureaucratic hurdles mean the loved ones of those who die often are stymied in their efforts to pursue accountability — or even receive basic information.
On reservations, this is due in part to a jurisdictional thicket that makes it difficult to know how to request records — or even who to request them from. In interviews for this story, the loved ones of those killed in law enforcement encounters all reported difficulty accessing information.
While he’s adamant that he’s “not a cop hater,” Poor Bear believes that systemic problems like high crime rates, underfunding of law enforcement, poor training, low staffing levels and a lack of familiarity between officers and residents have not only fueled broader dysfunction on the Rosebud reservation but also directly contributed to his son’s death.
And law enforcement’s lack of transparency, he said, has left him grieving and unable to move on.
Asked about the FBI’s process for keeping families informed after a fatal encounter, Freedman wrote that the bureau “typically designates one point of contact within a victim’s family to provide updates on the case.” She said the bureau’s victim specialist program “ensures consistent support and assistance to victims and their families.”
Painted memorial signs for people who were killed are posted alongside Sioux Boulevard in Rosebud, S.D., on the Rosebud Indian Reservation on Monday, Oct. 16, 2023.
None of the families interviewed for this series, however, mentioned being contacted by, or working with, an FBI victim specialist. And nearly all said they had never received documents such as autopsies and police reports, despite efforts to get documents that might address their questions or help them pursue accountability.
Poor Bear has tried to take what action he could. He said he has called “all kinds of numbers” given to him by the FBI without ever getting assistance, answers or basic documents, such as an autopsy report. He even protested his lack of access to documentation before the Rosebud Sioux Tribal Council, the tribe’s sole legislative body[18], to try “to get their attention.” He put up a sign demanding justice for his son alongside similar signs for other victims of police violence on the reservation.
Poor Bear believes those documents might help him find clarity and, perhaps, a lawyer who could help him pursue justice.
“Sometimes I ask myself, if there’s nothing to hide, give me the paperwork,” he said.
Recently, however, the federal government did share some of those documents in response to a Lee Enterprises’ public records request.
But after identifying 797 pages of documents and 33 minutes of video that were “potentially responsive” to this request, the FBI estimated it would take 55 months to provide those materials. A Lee Enterprises reporter agreed to the agency’s request to narrow the ask to 49 pages, a move expected to shorten processing time to four months.
Instead, in March, after eight months, the FBI provided 19 pages of documents with significant redactions, including blanking out the names of officers and witnesses. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for South Dakota also provided a seven-page letter in response to the same records request.
In response to a public records request from Lee Enterprises, the FBI provided some documents from the investigation into Adam Poor Bear’s death but redacted the officer’s account of pulling the trigger that fired the fatal bullet.
The FBI responded similarly to public records requests for documents related to seven other fatal encounters with law enforcement on tribal lands in South Dakota.
After Lee Enterprises filed those requests in the summer of 2023, the FBI’s Information Management Division estimated it would take between 4½ years and 6½ years to provide all documents related to each investigation.
The FBI then offered to provide up to 50 pages from each one in about four months. Though Lee agreed to this expedited approach, the shorter timelines were not met in all but one case; the bureau released fewer than 25 pages in three cases; and no records related to three other investigations had been provided as of press time.
Salomon Zavala, a Los Angeles-based civil rights attorney[19] who has worked with families of Native people killed by the police, said the length of the FBI’s response time can preclude families from pursuing excessive force and wrongful death cases, which typically have a two-year statute of limitations. And he said the difficulty in obtaining documents seriously complicates efforts to root out bad cops and pursue broader reforms that might bring down the high rates of fatal encounters between Natives and law enforcement.
Such accountability can’t be achieved, he said, without documentation.
“If you don’t have documents to evaluate and determine what exactly happened, then how do you hold someone accountable?” Zavala said. “How do you know these agencies, these police officers, these detectives are compliant with the law?”
Adam Poor Bear was fatally shot near the Parmelee rodeo and powwow grounds, shown Monday, Oct. 16, 2023, on South Dakota’s Rosebud Indian Reservation.
Body cameras weren’t activated when police killed man
The records related to the killing of Adam Poor Bear offered his father a glimpse of what he has long sought: the official account of what happened near midnight on March 14, 2018.
That account confirmed what Weldon Poor Bear believed: that his son was unarmed when he was shot.
But the documents obtained by Lee Enterprises also left many of Poor Bear’s questions unanswered — and raised new ones.
For example, the FBI’s summary of an interview with the officer who killed Adam alleges that Adam not only threatened but also “assaulted his father.” But in an interview with Lee Enterprises, Poor Bear disputed that assertion.
Weldon Poor Bear changes a wheel bearing in the driveway of his home in Parmelee, South Dakota, on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in May 2023.
While he acknowledged his wife called 911 that night to report that Adam had hit the house with a hammer and was threatening to break car windows, Weldon Poor Bear said his son didn’t actually break any windows, never threatened him and never assaulted him or anyone else.
“It was just a disturbance call, someone calling on him, saying he was being obnoxious,” Poor Bear said of his son.
But when the first tribal police officer arrived, Poor Bear said, he got out of his vehicle “all gung ho and hyped up” and started “running right at” Adam. That, Poor Bear believes, unnecessarily escalated the situation from the start.
The officer told FBI agents, however, that when he approached Adam and “yelled” his name, Adam responded by saying an expletive and then, “You have to catch me first.”
A foot chase ensued as Adam led the officer through town and toward the powwow grounds on the edge of Parmelee. Poor Bear and his wife watched it all happen from their front yard, pleading with their son to give himself up. But Adam wouldn’t listen.
A second officer approached the scene soon after, FBI files say, but he told interviewers that he was prevented from joining the pursuit because his vehicle got “stuck in the mud.”
That left the first officer alone to search for Adam, eventually finding him “laid face down on the ground in the grass” of the powwow grounds. The officer ordered Adam to stay still, the U.S. attorney’s letter says, but Adam disobeyed, “moved towards the officer” and asked the officer to “shoot me.”
When he was within about 10 feet of the officer, Adam pulled his hands from his pockets and the officer “attempted to fire his weapon,” FBI documents say. But no bullet was discharged, because the officer “forgot to load a round into the chamber.”
The officer then loaded a bullet, FBI files say, and the officer again yelled at Adam “to stop moving and get down on the ground.”
But the FBI FOIA office entirely redacted the officer’s description of why he pulled his trigger again, this time with his gun loaded.
The federal building in Aberdeen, South Dakota, pictured here in May 2023, houses some personnel from the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Office of Justice Services.
The U.S. attorney’s letter, however, fills in that blank with a description of what that office says happened: “At one point Adam was 5 to 8 yards from Officer (Redacted), and Adam moved quickly and rushed towards Officer (Redacted) and pulled his hands out of his pockets in an aggressive manner. At that time, Officer (Redacted) fired one shot and struck Adam in the upper chest.”
The officer who shot Adam told investigators “he never saw the hammer” or any other weapon, the letter says. Neither did the officer whose vehicle had gotten stuck.
Poor Bear said he was “watching the whole thing” from only about 200 yards away, close enough that he “could hear their voices,” and that he didn’t hear anyone “giving direct orders to get down or get back or something” to his son.
But there’s no way to know what actually happened when the officer encountered Adam that night, as neither of the officers had their body cameras activated at the time of the shooting.
The officer who fired the shot was wearing a camera that “would not turn on,” FBI documents state. And the officer who arrived next also had a body camera that was “not operational” when Adam was being pursued and then shot.
And yet, the U.S. attorney’s letter states, one of the officers was able to “activate his body camera” immediately after the shooting.
Poor Bear said he was surprised any footage was recorded, even if it only captured the aftermath of the officer firing.
“I wanted footage of the body cameras,” he said, “and they were like, ‘We don’t have body cameras.’”
These kinds of inconsistencies and gaps in the official account have left him baffled about why his unarmed son was shot dead despite having no weapon and harming no one.
“That’s what I told the FBI: ‘Why’d you guys do that? He didn’t hurt no one. He didn’t even do nothing,’” Poor Bear recalled. ‘I said, ‘This was a disturbance call. What’s going on? What did he do?’”
And while the documents obtained by Lee were the first Poor Bear has seen, he said the redactions, omissions and discrepancies mean he’s still “just living in limbo” six years after Adam was fatally shot.
The document he wanted most was his son’s autopsy, but it wasn’t included in the batch of files turned over in response to Lee Enterprises’ public records request. The U.S. attorney’s letter did, however, offer a description of the autopsy’s findings.
“The trajectory (of the bullet) traced within Adam’s body seems to support the theory that Adam was angled forward, or leaning forward, or running forward, at the time the shot was fired by Officer (Redacted),” the letter reads. “THC and alcohol (.195%) was found in Adam’s blood.”
After viewing the letter and FBI documents, Poor Bear went to the Rosebud Sioux Tribal Law Enforcement building this month to demand yet again to see documents he’s sought for six years.
This time, he said, Steven DeNoyer Jr., chief administrator[20] of the Rosebud Sioux Law Enforcement Services Department, and another tribal officer allowed him to view tribal police reports as well as the autopsy. But Poor Bear said he was not allowed to have copies of those documents.
The Rosebud Sioux Tribe Law Enforcement Building on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota on Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023.
DeNoyer did not respond to requests for comment, and Capt. Iver Crow Eagle declined to comment when reached by phone.
While viewing the autopsy gave Poor Bear some more details about the physical cause of his son’s death, it left him wondering if his son was angled forward not because he was running at the officer but because he was complying with the order to get down on the ground.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office found that the officer who shot Adam “acted in self-defense” and should not be subject to criminal charges. But Poor Bear believes tribal police unnecessarily turned a minor family disagreement into a deadly encounter: “You should be able to resolve a small issue like that without no one getting killed.”
“I’m not against the police,” he said. “I just want better relations and better communications and better training.”
States with the highest rate of people killed by police
States with the highest rate of people killed by police
On average more than 1,000 people are fatally shot by police each year, according to data collected by the Washington Post.
In 2022, the number of people shot and killed by police—1,096—reached a record high, as confidence in police reached a 30-year low. Fewer than half of all Americans[21] reported having confidence in the police, according to a Gallup poll, the lowest level since 2020 in the wake of the death of George Floyd. Put another way, the majority of Americans have little or no confidence in law enforcement.
Stacker[22] cited data from the Washington Post’s fatal police shootings database[23] to look at the rate of fatal police shootings across every state and Washington D.C. in the U.S. since 2015. Rates are calculated using 2020 Census population data. If no demographic has at least five incidents, rates by demographic are not included.
The data presents troubling trends indicative of systemic issues throughout the institution of law enforcement nationwide. Despite representing just 12% of the U.S. population[24], Black people are killed by police at higher rates than any other racial group in 45 states. In four out of the remaining five states, police shot and killed Native Americans at the highest rate. Only in New Hampshire did white people represent the largest share of people killed by police.
One out of every five victims identified by the Washington Post had a history of mental illness or was experiencing mental distress when they were shot. However, not every law enforcement officer is trained or required to be trained to recognize and respond to mental health crises.
Some studies suggest Crisis Intervention Team training can lead to an increase in instances where verbal negotiation is the highest level of force used by responding officers. CIT-trained officers may also be more likely to make referrals to mental health units and less likely to make arrests. Though data on the efficacy of CIT training[25] in reducing the use of force among police officers is limited, some departments aim to train 100% of their force in the CIT program. And yet, deploying lethal force is ultimately a judgment call—one not always easy to make, one that can be made in error, and one that is subject to the training and morality of the responding officer.
There are times when police officers must use lethal force[26] in defense of their lives or the lives of others. Since 2016, 83% of fatal police shootings victims were armed[27], most often with a gun. The presence of a weapon alone does not warrant lethal force, nor does the prevalence of armed victims justify the increasing number of people killed by police each year. This data, however, can illustrate the unique and complex dangers officers must face when responding to any given situation. Hundreds of others killed by police in this same time frame were either unarmed, armed with a replica weapon, or wielding a replica as though it were a real firearm.
One of the most troubling trends is a lack of institutional accountability. As fatal police shootings have increased, fewer of these incidents are reported to the federal government. The Washington Post found that only one-third of the fatal police shootings[28] included in its database were also present among FBI data.
While all agencies are asked to report these incidents, compliance to report homicides through the Uniform Crime Reporting System—including officer-involved shootings—is mandatory only for federal law enforcement. Negligence, clerical errors, miscommunication, and willful noncompliance are just some of the reasons for discrepancies.
Until agencies nationwide, at all levels, enforce consistent and complete data collection on the use of deadly force, systemic change will be harder to achieve.
#51. Rhode Island
– People fatally killed by police: 0.5 per 100K (6 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 16.7%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 5
– Agency with the most shootings: No agency with at least 5 shootings
#50. Connecticut
– People fatally killed by police: 0.6 per 100K (23 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 21.7%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 22
– Agency with the most shootings: No agency with at least 5 shootings
– Demographics
— 0.4 white people shot per 100K
— 1.3 Black people shot per 100K
— 1.1 Hispanic people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#49. New York
– People fatally killed by police: 0.8 per 100K (152 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 18.4%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 53
– Agency with the most shootings: New York Police Department
– Demographics
— 0.5 white people shot per 100K
— 2.0 Black people shot per 100K
— 0.4 Hispanic people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#48. Massachusetts
– People fatally killed by police: 0.8 per 100K (57 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 7.0%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 36
– Agency with the most shootings: Boston Police Department
– Demographics
— 0.6 white people shot per 100K
— 2.4 Black people shot per 100K
— 1.0 Hispanic people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#47. New Jersey
– People fatally killed by police: 1.0 per 100K (95 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 10.5%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 62
– Agency with the most shootings: Newark Police Department
– Demographics
— 0.5 white people shot per 100K
— 3.3 Black people shot per 100K
— 0.4 Hispanic people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#46. Pennsylvania
– People fatally killed by police: 1.3 per 100K (172 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 4.1%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 72
– Agency with the most shootings: Pennsylvania State Police
– Demographics
— 0.8 white people shot per 100K
— 3.9 Black people shot per 100K
— 0.9 Hispanic people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#45. Illinois
– People fatally killed by police: 1.3 per 100K (170 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 17.6%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 91
– Agency with the most shootings: Chicago Police Department
– Demographics
— 0.6 white people shot per 100K
— 4.4 Black people shot per 100K
— 0.7 Hispanic people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#44. Michigan
– People fatally killed by police: 1.4 per 100K (142 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 14.8%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 76
– Agency with the most shootings: Detroit Police Department
– Demographics
— 0.9 white people shot per 100K
— 3.2 Black people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Hispanic people
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#43. Iowa
– People fatally killed by police: 1.6 per 100K (50 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 24.0%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 33
– Agency with the most shootings: Des Moines Police Department
– Demographics
— 1.4 white people shot per 100K
— 6.8 Black people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Hispanic people
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#42. Minnesota
– People fatally killed by police: 1.6 per 100K (92 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 41.3%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 63
– Agency with the most shootings: St. Paul Police Department
– Demographics
— 1.2 white people shot per 100K
— 5.0 Black people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Hispanic people
— 8.7 Native American people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#41. New Hampshire
– People fatally killed by police: 1.7 per 100K (23 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 13.0%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 16
– Agency with the most shootings: New Hampshire State Police
– Demographics
— 1.6 white people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Black people
— Incident count too small for Hispanic people
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#40. Virginia
– People fatally killed by police: 1.8 per 100K (154 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 14.3%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 83
– Agency with the most shootings: Virginia State Police
– Demographics
— 1.5 white people shot per 100K
— 3.5 Black people shot per 100K
— 0.6 Hispanic people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#39. Maryland
– People fatally killed by police: 1.8 per 100K (112 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 27.7%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 32
– Agency with the most shootings: Baltimore County Police Department
– Demographics
— 1.2 white people shot per 100K
— 3.7 Black people shot per 100K
— 0.7 Hispanic people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#38. Delaware
– People fatally killed by police: 1.9 per 100K (19 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 15.8%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 7
– Agency with the most shootings: Delaware State Police
– Demographics
— 1.2 white people shot per 100K
— 3.2 Black people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Hispanic people
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#37. Vermont
– People fatally killed by police: 2.0 per 100K (13 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 23.1%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 10
– Agency with the most shootings: No agency with at least 5 shootings
– Demographics
— 1.7 white people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Black people
— Incident count too small for Hispanic people
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#36. Ohio
– People fatally killed by police: 2.0 per 100K (240 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 17.9%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 117
– Agency with the most shootings: Columbus Police Department
– Demographics
— 1.4 white people shot per 100K
— 6.0 Black people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Hispanic people
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#35. Nebraska
– People fatally killed by police: 2.1 per 100K (41 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 19.5%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 23
– Agency with the most shootings: Omaha Police Department
– Demographics
— 1.9 white people shot per 100K
— 6.2 Black people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Hispanic people
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#34. Wisconsin
– People fatally killed by police: 2.2 per 100K (129 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 17.1%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 75
– Agency with the most shootings: Milwaukee Police Department
– Demographics
— 1.5 white people shot per 100K
— 8.5 Black people shot per 100K
— 1.8 Hispanic people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#33. North Carolina
– People fatally killed by police: 2.3 per 100K (240 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 13.8%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 123
– Agency with the most shootings: Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department
– Demographics
— 2.0 white people shot per 100K
— 3.6 Black people shot per 100K
— 1.0 Hispanic people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#32. North Dakota
– People fatally killed by police: 2.3 per 100K (18 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 11.1%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 15
– Agency with the most shootings: No agency with at least 5 shootings
– Demographics
— 1.4 white people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Black people
— Incident count too small for Hispanic people
— 20.6 Native American people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#31. Indiana
– People fatally killed by police: 2.3 per 100K (158 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 20.9%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 87
– Agency with the most shootings: Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department
– Demographics
— 1.9 white people shot per 100K
— 6.2 Black people shot per 100K
— 0.9 Hispanic people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#30. Florida
– People fatally killed by police: 2.5 per 100K (534 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 10.9%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 138
– Agency with the most shootings: Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office
– Demographics
— 1.9 white people shot per 100K
— 5.0 Black people shot per 100K
— 1.2 Hispanic people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#29. Maine
– People fatally killed by police: 2.5 per 100K (34 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: .0%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 23
– Agency with the most shootings: Maine State Police
– Demographics
— 2.4 white people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Black people
— Incident count too small for Hispanic people
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#28. South Carolina
– People fatally killed by police: 2.6 per 100K (131 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 15.3%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 58
– Agency with the most shootings: Greenville County Sheriff’s Department
– Demographics
— 2.3 white people shot per 100K
— 3.5 Black people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Hispanic people
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#27. Texas
– People fatally killed by police: 2.6 per 100K (771 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 13.7%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 265
– Agency with the most shootings: Houston Police Department
– Demographics
— 1.8 white people shot per 100K
— 4.5 Black people shot per 100K
— 1.8 Hispanic people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— 0.5 Asian people shot per 100K
#26. Hawaii
– People fatally killed by police: 2.7 per 100K (40 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 22.5%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 5
– Agency with the most shootings: Honolulu Police Department
– Demographics
— Incident count too small for White people
— Incident count too small for Black people
— Incident count too small for Hispanic people
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— 4.8 Asian people shot per 100K
#25. Kansas
– People fatally killed by police: 2.8 per 100K (81 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 13.6%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 44
– Agency with the most shootings: Wichita Police Department
– Demographics
— 2.5 white people shot per 100K
— 5.9 Black people shot per 100K
— 3.1 Hispanic people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#24. Washington
– People fatally killed by police: 3.0 per 100K (228 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 11.4%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 82
– Agency with the most shootings: Seattle Police Department
– Demographics
— 1.8 white people shot per 100K
— 9.4 Black people shot per 100K
— 2.6 Hispanic people shot per 100K
— 5.8 Native American people shot per 100K
— 1.8 Asian people shot per 100K
#23. Georgia
– People fatally killed by police: 3.0 per 100K (318 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 8.8%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 147
– Agency with the most shootings: Atlanta Police Department
– Demographics
— 2.2 white people shot per 100K
— 3.8 Black people shot per 100K
— 1.7 Hispanic people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#22. California
– People fatally killed by police: 3.0 per 100K (1,198 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 19.3%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 280
– Agency with the most shootings: Los Angeles Police Department
– Demographics
— 1.8 white people shot per 100K
— 7.7 Black people shot per 100K
— 2.8 Hispanic people shot per 100K
— 0.8 Native American people shot per 100K
— 0.7 Asian people shot per 100K
#21. Utah
– People fatally killed by police: 3.1 per 100K (101 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 30.7%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 47
– Agency with the most shootings: Salt Lake City Police Department
– Demographics
— 2.1 white people shot per 100K
— 20.0 Black people shot per 100K
— 3.4 Hispanic people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#20. Alabama
– People fatally killed by police: 3.2 per 100K (160 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 13.1%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 87
– Agency with the most shootings: Birmingham Police Department
– Demographics
— 2.8 white people shot per 100K
— 3.2 Black people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Hispanic people
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#19. Oregon
– People fatally killed by police: 3.2 per 100K (137 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 7.3%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 59
– Agency with the most shootings: Portland Police Department
– Demographics
— 2.8 white people shot per 100K
— 12.1 Black people shot per 100K
— 2.0 Hispanic people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#18. South Dakota
– People fatally killed by police: 3.3 per 100K (29 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 6.9%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 14
– Agency with the most shootings: Rapid City Police Department
– Demographics
— 1.8 white people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Black people
— Incident count too small for Hispanic people
— 7.7 Native American people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#17. Kentucky
– People fatally killed by police: 3.3 per 100K (150 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 11.3%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 69
– Agency with the most shootings: Kentucky State Police
– Demographics
— 2.7 white people shot per 100K
— 6.3 Black people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Hispanic people
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#16. Tennessee
– People fatally killed by police: 3.4 per 100K (234 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 10.7%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 116
– Agency with the most shootings: Memphis Police Department
– Demographics
— 3.0 white people shot per 100K
— 5.2 Black people shot per 100K
— 1.3 Hispanic people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#15. Louisiana
– People fatally killed by police: 3.6 per 100K (166 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 12.0%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 69
– Agency with the most shootings: Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office
– Demographics
— 2.1 white people shot per 100K
— 6.0 Black people shot per 100K
— 1.6 Hispanic people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#14. Missouri
– People fatally killed by police: 3.6 per 100K (220 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 3.6%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 94
– Agency with the most shootings: Kansas City Police Department
– Demographics
— 2.4 white people shot per 100K
— 10.0 Black people shot per 100K
— 2.0 Hispanic people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#13. Mississippi
– People fatally killed by police: 3.7 per 100K (109 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 6.4%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 64
– Agency with the most shootings: Jackson Police Department
– Demographics
— 3.0 white people shot per 100K
— 3.8 Black people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Hispanic people
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#12. Washington D.C.
– People fatally killed by police: 3.8 per 100K (26 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 42.3%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 7
– Agency with the most shootings: Metropolitan Police Department
– Demographics
— Incident count too small for White people
— 7.7 Black people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Hispanic people
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#11. Idaho
– People fatally killed by police: 3.8 per 100K (70 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 15.7%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 39
– Agency with the most shootings: Boise Police Department
– Demographics
— 3.2 white people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Black people
— 2.9 Hispanic people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#10. Arkansas
– People fatally killed by police: 3.8 per 100K (115 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 7.0%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 73
– Agency with the most shootings: Little Rock Police Department
– Demographics
— 3.1 white people shot per 100K
— 6.6 Black people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Hispanic people
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#9. Nevada
– People fatally killed by police: 4.4 per 100K (137 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 32.1%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 22
– Agency with the most shootings: Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department
– Demographics
— 3.5 white people shot per 100K
— 7.2 Black people shot per 100K
— 4.2 Hispanic people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#8. West Virginia
– People fatally killed by police: 4.5 per 100K (80 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 8.8%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 44
– Agency with the most shootings: West Virginia State Police
– Demographics
— 3.3 white people shot per 100K
— 12.2 Black people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Hispanic people
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#7. Wyoming
– People fatally killed by police: 4.9 per 100K (28 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: .0%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 17
– Agency with the most shootings: Casper Police Department
– Demographics
— 2.9 white people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Black people
— Incident count too small for Hispanic people
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#6. Montana
– People fatally killed by police: 5.0 per 100K (54 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 7.4%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 27
– Agency with the most shootings: Billings Police Department
– Demographics
— 3.8 white people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Black people
— Incident count too small for Hispanic people
— 16.3 Native American people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#5. Colorado
– People fatally killed by police: 5.3 per 100K (305 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 10.8%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 82
– Agency with the most shootings: Denver Police Department
– Demographics
— 3.5 white people shot per 100K
— 10.6 Black people shot per 100K
— 5.3 Hispanic people shot per 100K
— 6.7 Native American people shot per 100K
— 2.5 Asian people shot per 100K
#4. Arizona
– People fatally killed by police: 5.4 per 100K (384 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 15.4%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 77
– Agency with the most shootings: Phoenix Police Department
– Demographics
— 3.4 white people shot per 100K
— 9.1 Black people shot per 100K
— 5.2 Hispanic people shot per 100K
— 4.4 Native American people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#3. Oklahoma
– People fatally killed by police: 5.9 per 100K (232 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 17.2%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 99
– Agency with the most shootings: Oklahoma City Police Department
– Demographics
— 5.2 white people shot per 100K
— 14.1 Black people shot per 100K
— 3.0 Hispanic people shot per 100K
— 4.2 Native American people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#2. Alaska
– People fatally killed by police: 7.4 per 100K (54 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 7.4%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 14
– Agency with the most shootings: Alaska State Troopers
– Demographics
— 6.9 white people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Black people
— Incident count too small for Hispanic people
— 10.8 Native American people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Asian people
#1. New Mexico
– People fatally killed by police: 8.4 per 100K (178 people)
– Incidents with body cameras enabled: 15.2%
– Number of agencies involved in fatal police shootings: 56
– Agency with the most shootings: Albuquerque Police Department
– Demographics
— 3.2 white people shot per 100K
— 13.1 Black people shot per 100K
— 9.5 Hispanic people shot per 100K
— Incident count too small for Native American people
— Incident count too small for Asian people
Data reporting by Emma Rubin. Story editing by Brian Budzynski. Copy editing by Tim Bruns.
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References
- ^ recent data (www.cdc.gov)
- ^ Native Lives Matter (www.facebook.com)
- ^ 2018 report (www.usccr.gov)
- ^ Fatal Encounters (fatalencounters.org)
- ^ Mapping Police Violence (mappingpoliceviolence.org)
- ^ Fatal Force (www.washingtonpost.com)
- ^ organizer (ndncollective.org)
- ^ reservations (www.census.gov)
- ^ off (minorityhealth.hhs.gov)
- ^ NDN Collective (ndncollective.org)
- ^ recent study (www.minneapolisfed.org)
- ^ Matthew Harvey (directory.tacoma.uw.edu)
- ^ Ninth Federal Reserve District (www.minneapolisfed.org)
- ^ Office of Justice Services (www.bia.gov)
- ^ report (www.bia.gov)
- ^ found to be (www.nytimes.com)
- ^ evidence (www.minneapolisfed.org)
- ^ sole legislative body (www.rosebudsiouxtribe-nsn.gov)
- ^ attorney (zavalalawgroup.com)
- ^ chief administrator (www.lakotatimes.com)
- ^ Fewer than half of all Americans (news.gallup.com)
- ^ Stacker (stacker.com)
- ^ fatal police shootings database (github.com)
- ^ 12% of the U.S. population (www.census.gov)
- ^ data on the efficacy of CIT training (bja.ojp.gov)
- ^ must use lethal force (www.justice.gov)
- ^ 83% of fatal police shootings victims were armed (www.washingtonpost.com)
- ^ only one-third of the fatal police shootings (www.washingtonpost.com)