Police Have Shot and Killed 385 People This Year — And 2/3 of the Unarmed Victims Were Black or Hispanic

Nationwide — According to the Washington Post, as of June 1, 2015, police officers in the United States have shot and fatally wounded 385 people. That’s an average of two every day. The Post says that at that rate, police will have shot and killed nearly 1,000 people by the end of the year. But federal officials dispute those numbers.

The analysis comes as a national debate continues on the topic of police brutality, especially against unarmed African Americans. Data shows that that about half the victims were white, half minority. Among unarmed victims, two-thirds were black or Hispanic.

Even worse, the victims ranged in age from 16 to 83 and based on census numbers for the areas where the killings took place, blacks were killed at three times the rate of whites or other minorities.

How many police officers where charged with a crime?

Three of the 385 fatal shootings have resulted in an officer being charged with a crime.

What the experts say

Regarding the federal government’s dispute of the numbers, Jim Bueermann, president of the Police Foundation, commented, “We are never going to reduce the number of police shootings if we don’t begin to accurately track this information. His foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving law enforcement.

The Post also reports that several current and former police chiefs and other criminal justice officials told them that many deaths could be blamed on poor policing. They added that police must start accepting responsibility for the people they have killed.