Eric Garner and Tamir Rice among those missing from FBI record of police killings

10/15/2015 News Insights

By Jon Swaine, Oliver Laughland & Campaign Zero

Insight:A review of data collected over the years by the FBI showed that high-profile homicides in which officers were found to be at fault were not recorded or were logged inconsistently. Problems stem from the fact that only one of the FBI’s 32 classifications for all homicides – which are precise enough to include “child killed by babysitter” and homicides linked to gambling – makes reference to the person who carried out the homicide being a police officer. This classification, “felon killed by police”, is automatically counted as a justifiable homicide.