Police Shooting Statistics 2016: Are More Black People Killed By Officers Than Other Races?

Of the 990 people who were killed by police officers in 2015, the Washington Post reported 258 of them were black. So far in 2016, there have been 708 documented deaths in police shootings, 173 of which have resulted the deaths of African-Americans. Although there has been increased media attention surrounding the police killings of black people — on Saturday videos were released of Keith Scott’s death after he was shot by a police officer in Charlotte, North Carolina — statistics show the number of police shootings has increased among all races.

The Post, which has been collecting data and public records on police shootings throughout the country since last year, reported 325 white people and 111 Hispanics have been shot and killed by police so far in 2016. Of the 708 deaths reported, the races of 27 of those kills were described as other, and the races of 72 of the deceased are still unknown. The majority of the police shootings have been of men, which account for 679 of the deaths reported.

With three months of the year yet to go, the latest stats hint that police-shootings are on the rise compared to previous years. Last year ended with 494 killings of white people and 172 Hispanics. Sixty-six of the police shootings were of people of undetermined race or identified as other. Some 948 of the police shootings were of men. Of the police shootings reported in 2015, no officers were convicted of murder.

A report released by the FBI documented 12,765 people were killed by police officers between 2008 and 2012. The five-year study, which grouped all the deaths regardless of how targets were actually killed, reported 77.7 percent of people killed by officers were men, and 51.1 percent were black men, while 46.3 percent were white, 2.6 percent were of other races, and the races of 130 victims were unknown.