While local state and Federal law enforcement agencies keep absolutely accurate records of the number of police officers killed or assaulted in the line of duty (typically less than 60 killed per year), there is no comparable systematic accounting of the number of citizens killed by police each year. This data is not nationally gathered or reported, save for a voluntary FBI reporting program. The task has largely been left to individual researchers to cobble together local and state – level data (much of which has removed racial identifiers) and report what police only seem to be concerned about in light of potential litigation.

A variety of efforts have attempted to document both the numbers and the racial disparities. Included here are a 2007 study conducted by ColorLines and The Chicago Reporter, two major reports from the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (Report on the Extrajudicial Killing of 120 Black People, January 1n to June 30 2012 that documents the police killing of one Black Man Woman or Child every 36 hours and Operation Ghetto Storm: 20)12 Annual Report on the extrajudicial killing of 313 Black people by police, security guards and vigilantes #Every28Hours) and an analysis of federally collected data on 1,217 fatal police shootings by Propublica, Deadly Force in Black and White. All studies found that Blacks were substantially more likely than whites/other racial or ethnic groups to be killed by police, even when they were unarmed.

In the era of #Ferguson/#Baltimore/#Everywhere, there are calls for an accounting. Yesterday, Senators Barbara Boxer and Cory Booker introduced the The Police Reporting of Information, Data and Evidence Act. This that would require police departments to report any incidents in which an officer is involved in “use of force” that results in serious injury or death to the Justice Department. The chances of the bill passing remain to be seen.

In lieu of any current mandated recording, the Guardian as launched an interactive crowd-sourced database of police killings that records what government officials will not: The Counted. It represents the most comprehensive data source to date on the stories and statistics, the demography and geography of “any deaths arising directly from encounters with law enforcement”, including people who were shot, tasered and struck by police vehicles as well those who died in police custody. So far this year..

Please share this invaluable resource and contribute to the database via the online links if you have information on police killing(s). It is hoped Counting will lead to Accountability, but that burden rests with us.

Make the stories, make the numbers Count towards Systemic Change.