FBI, This Week: National Use-of-Force Data Collection Underway

Audio Transcript

Mollie Halpern: The FBI has launched the nation’s first and only database that collects information about police-involved shootings and use-of-force incidents.

Christine Halvorsen: Instead of focusing on the single incident that you sometimes see in the media, this collection will provide a fulsome aggregate picture across the country of all use-of-force incidents.

Halpern: That was Acting Assistant Director Christine Halvorsen, who says the database promotes greater transparency between law enforcement and the communities they serve.

Halvorsen: It will also allow us to be able to determine resource allocations where community outreach is greatly needed, as well as officer training practices that may need to be implemented.

Halpern: The repository has the support of law enforcement agencies across the country who voluntarily submit the data.

Halvorsen: It kicked off on January 1, 2019, and as of February 2019, we already have approximately 4,600 law enforcement agencies that are participating in this collection.

Halpern: The FBI will publicly release descriptive information on trends and characteristics of the data. I’m Mollie Halpern of the Bureau with FBI, This Week.