FBI to Collect and Publish More Data on Officer-Involved Shootings

Federal authorities plan to collect additional information about shootings involving law enforcement and will begin publishing a report with more details on how police use deadly force, FBI Director James B. Comey said Monday.

Comey described this information as necessary for the ongoing debate over policing in the United States. Continuing “without comprehensive data only stalls meaningful conversation and fuels empty debates, both within law enforcement and in the communities we serve,” he wrote in a message accompanying the release of the FBI’s crime statistics for 2014.

This is not the first time Comey has criticized the lack of data available regarding how often police officers shoot and kill people. While the federal government does track some fatal police shootings, federal officials have acknowledged that this data is incomplete. Not all agencies in the United States participate in the voluntary reporting system, which had left a considerable gap in the ongoing public discussion, the Washington Post reports.