Research Guides: Black Lives Matter: Policing and Incarceration: Statistics and Data

Statistics and Data

Bureau of Justice Statistics
Excessive or reasonable force by police? Research on law enforcement and racial conflict
Many links to raw data and how to think about using statistics in reporting
Mapping Police Violence
List of Americans killed by police officers
Center for Policing Equity
See "Research" tab for reports on police interactions with civilians, broken down by race

National Criminal Justice Reference Service This link opens in a new window
Federally funded resource offering justice and substance abuse information to support research, policy, and program development worldwide. The database contains summaries of more than 180,000 criminal justice publications, including Federal, State, and local government reports; books; research reports; journal articles; and unpublished research. Links to several full text documents (1995 forward) are also available

The Counted: People Killed by Police in the U.S.
The Force Report
Database of all reported uses of force by police in New Jersey from 2012-2016, including the race and sex of arrestees.
Fatal Encounters
A database compiling facts about encounters between police and civilians that involve use of force. It is not comprehensive but is robust.
Every Three Seconds: Unlocking Police Data on Arrests
Trends in U.S. Corrections
Incarceration reports from The Sentencing Project
Racial Disparity reports from The Sentencing Project
Mapping George Floyd / Black Lives Matter protests
Every town or city I can find where a George Floyd / Black Lives Matter protest, action, or vigil has occurred since May 25, 2020
Dataset of incidents of police violence at 2020 protests
Use of Force Policies among 100 largest U.S. cities
List of Transfers of Surplus Military Equipment to Police Agencies
ICPSR Data Resources About Race and Policing
The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research provides datasets for analysis of historic trends in police use of force and community relations
Police Funding Database
Stanford Open Policing Project
On a typical day in the United States, police officers make more than 50,000 traffic stops. Our team is gathering, analyzing, and releasing records from millions of traffic stops by law enforcement agencies across the country.
Black/African American Public Opinion
Public opinion archive from the Roper Center / iPoll. Over 10,000 questions cover attitudes of and about Blacks in America going back decades. Includes listing of major polls through the decades and a historical context essay. Use the topic Blacks/African Americans in iPoll for all questions.
The Homicide Files
In Philadelphia, 21 people convicted of murder have been exonerated since 2018. But those account for a fraction of cases in which witnesses and defendants made allegations that detectives fabricated statements, coerced confessions, or engaged in other improper techniques. Some of those allegations were not considered credible by the courts. This database aims to provide context by allowing you to review and filter allegations and learn about some cases in which people have alleged misconduct.
Fatal Force
Washington Post database of shootings by police officers