In an effort to crack down on police brutality, police officers soon will be required to report the details of all deadly incidents to the U.S. Department of Justice, as reported by (and possibly inspired by) The Guardian, which has kept track of these incidents through its own tracking system. The new system hopes to both increase transparency and hold officers more accountable at a time when tensions are high between police and anti-brutality protest groups.
This determination by the DOJ follows a wave of prominent officer-involved shootings and attacks on police themselves, which has, in turn, caused President Obama to condemn and lament the violence. Department of Justice officials said they want this new system to be a more organized collection of incidents:
“Accurate and comprehensive accounting of deaths that occur during the process of arrest is critical for law enforcement agencies to demonstrate responsiveness to the citizens and communities they serve.”
To date, there has been no comprehensive system of recording deadly incidents committed by police officers, with most of the incidents only coming forward because of the honor system. The Justice Department would document deaths caused by shootings, physical force, taser shocks, and in some cases vehicle crashes caused by law enforcement. As the public most recently saw in Chicago, these deaths continue. But at the end of the year, law enforcement agencies will have to report all of 2016’s incidents. Once that is over, the Justice Department will send all 19,450 American law enforcement agencies a form each quarter to record any of these incidents.
There may be a few kinks to work out once this system is put into place, but it could lead to these types of incidents being cut down and greater transparency among law enforcement agencies.
(Via The Guardian)