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Police use of deadly force in the United States

Updated: 5/20/2026, 7:10:37 PM Wikipedia source

In the United States, use of deadly force by police has been a high-profile and contentious issue. In 2022, 1,096 people were killed by police shootings according to The Washington Post, while according to the "Mapping Police Violence" (MPV) project, 1,176 people were killed by police in total. MPV documented 1,213 killings by police for 2023. A lack of reliable data has made conclusions about race and policing difficult. Several non-government and crowdsourcing projects have been started to address this lack of reliable data. Research has provided mixed results on the extent of racial bias in the police use of deadly force, with some studies finding no racial bias, while other studies conclude there is racial bias in the use of deadly force. A study by Esposito, Lee, Edwards estimated that 1 in 2,000 men and 1 in 33,000 women have a lifetime risk of dying as a result of police use of deadly force, with the highest risk for black men, at approximately 1 in 1,000. Black, Hispanic, and Native American/Alaskan individuals are disproportionately killed in police shootings compared to White or Asian individuals.

Tables

Firearm deaths and fatal police shootings by race (for year 2019) · Racial patterns › Civilian characteristics
Population
Population
Col 1
Population
White
255,040,203
Black
46,599,393
Asian
21,814,724
Indigenous
4,785,203
% of total
% of total
Col 1
% of total
White
77 %
Black
14 %
Asian
6 %
Indigenous
1 %
All firearm deaths
All firearm deaths
Col 1
All firearm deaths
White
28,041
Black
10,555
Asian
679
Indigenous
432
% of total
% of total
Col 1
% of total
White
70 %
Black
26 %
Asian
1 %
Indigenous
1 %
Fatally shot by police
Fatally shot by police
Col 1
Fatally shot by police
White
355
Black
122
Asian
23
Indigenous
20
% of total
% of total
Col 1
% of total
White
68 %
Black
23 %
Asian
4 %
Indigenous
3 %
White
Black
Asian
Indigenous
Population
255,040,203
46,599,393
21,814,724
4,785,203
% of total
77 %
14 %
6 %
1 %
All firearm deaths
28,041
10,555
679
432
% of total
70 %
26 %
1 %
1 %
Fatally shot by police
355
122
23
20
% of total
68 %
23 %
4 %
3 %

References

  1. Justice Quarterly
    https://doi.org/10.1080%2F07418828800089691
  2. The Washington Post
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/police-shootings-database/
  3. the Guardian
    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/06/us-police-killings-record-number-2022
  4. FiveThirtyEight
    https://web.archive.org/web/20200602025438/https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/police-are-killing-fewer-people-in-big-cities-but-more-in-suburban-and-rural-america/
  5. WSWS
    https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/12/30/asgq-d30.html
  6. American Political Science Review
    https://doi.org/10.1017%2FS0003055420000039
  7. Fryer, Roland Gerhard
    https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w22399/w22399.pdf
  8. Retraction Watch
    https://retractionwatch.com/2020/05/04/a-study-finding-no-evidence-of-racial-bias-in-police-shootings-earns-a-correction-that-critics-call-an-opaque-half-measure/
  9. "PREVIEW Editorial: Scientific versus Public Debates: A PNAS Case Study"
    https://blog.pnas.org/2020/06/preview-editorial-scientific-versus-public-debates-a-pnas-case-study/
  10. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6708348
  11. The Guardian
    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2015/jun/01/the-counted-police-killings-us-database
  12. Social Psychological and Personality Science
    https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1948550620916071
  13. "What is police brutality? Depends on where you live"
    http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/14/22293714-what-is-police-brutality-depends-on-where-you-live?lite
  14. "Deadly Force: Police Use of Lethal Force In The United States"
    https://www.amnestyusa.org/reports/deadly-force-police-use-of-lethal-force-in-the-united-states/
  15. BBC News Magazine
    https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36826297
  16. American Journal of Public Health
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4985110
  17. American Journal of Public Health
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1447919
  18. "National Data Collection on Police Use of Force"
    https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ndcopuof.pdf
  19. The Guardian
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/03/us-government-could-count-killed-by-police-chosen-not-to
  20. The Guardian
    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/18/police-killings-government-data-count
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