Police Shoot Victims Twice As Many Times As Civilians

When police officers kill someone with a gun, they fire nearly twice as many bullets as civilians do in homicides, according to a comprehensive new study published yesterday in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

The research, which analyzed data from the National Violent Death Reporting System spanning 2005 to 2020, found that victims of police shootings sustained an average of six gunshot wounds compared to just four in civilian shootings. Nearly 80% of those killed by police were shot multiple times.

“The US has a far higher homicide rate of both police killing and police getting killed compared to other high-income countries,” said lead investigator Dr. Vageesh Jain of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

The study reveals stark demographic disparities. Men were 26 times more likely than women to die from police gunfire. Black, Hispanic, and American Indian/Alaska Native individuals faced more than double the risk compared to white people. Those between 25 and 34 years old experienced the highest rates, with people living in Western states facing four times the risk of Northeastern residents.

While most victims used a weapon during their encounter with police (76%), weapon use was significantly lower among Black victims compared to white victims (69.3% versus 78.0%). Even after accounting for weapon use, researchers found that Black victims and those outside the Northeast had more gunshot wounds per fatality.

Co-author David Hemenway, also from Harvard’s Injury Control Research Center, noted, “Our study shows that the number of bullet wounds in victims shot and killed by police is much higher than the number of bullet wounds when the victim is shot and killed by other civilians.”

The findings raise questions about police firearms training and use of force protocols. In the United States, law enforcement officers are trained to “eliminate threats” rather than to wound or disable suspects, an approach that contrasts with policies in other developed nations.

Public health experts increasingly view fatal police violence as a crisis. “Law enforcement kills more than 1,000 civilians each year, the highest rate of any developed nation,” Dr. Jain explained. “Over half of these approximately 1,000 annual victims of police shootings have more than four gunshot wounds, indicating that generally far more than four shots were fired.”

High-profile incidents like the 2020 shooting of Jacob Blake, who was shot seven times in the back by police, have sparked national protests over police brutality and systemic racism. Yet accountability remains elusive – between 2005 and 2019, only four police officers were convicted of murder and 18 of manslaughter for on-duty shootings.

The study suggests regional differences in policing practices may contribute to disparities. Victims in the Northeast had significantly fewer gunshot wounds than those in other regions. Dr. Hemenway observed, “Our findings suggest that rates of gun-related crime as well as police practice on firearms differ greatly across regions, underscoring the complex interplay of factors involved in police killings.”

Beyond identifying who gets shot, this study uniquely quantifies how many times victims are shot – a measurement that researchers argue could help assess lethal intent in police shootings.

“Efforts to address inequities in risk of police homicide must consider both the prevention and management of such incidents, to effectively build trust with the communities most affected,” Dr. Jain concluded. Despite growing research attention, the annual number of civilians killed by police has remained steady at around 1,000 per year.