Police

Axios - Rural and suburban areas in the United States are seeing higher rates of police shootings than urban areas, according to a study reviewed by Axios. The analysis by Vanderbilt University counters the widespread belief that killings by police are mainly an urban problem — and suggests that many police shootings in rural and suburban areas often go unreported and unnoticed.

From 2015 to 2020, 45% of all shootings by law enforcement occurred in rural areas and 22% in the suburbs, a new study published in the June edition of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found...

• Black and Native American residents of urban areas were most disproportionately affected by police shootings, but injury rates also were high among suburban and rural Black residents, along with rural Native Americans, the study found.
• These groups' per capita rates of injury from shootings by police were three to five times higher than rates of injury among whites living in similar areas.
• Rates of injury to Hispanic residents of urban, suburban and rural areas were nearly two times higher than non-Hispanic white residents' rates of injury.

Guardian -Police in the US use force on at least 300,000 people each year, injuring an estimated 100,000 of them, according to a groundbreaking data analysis on law enforcement encounters.Mapping Police Violence, a non-profit research group that tracks killings by US police, launched a new database on Wednesday cataloging non-fatal incidents of police use of force, including stun guns, chemical sprays, K9 dog attacks, neck restraints, beanbags and baton strikes.

The database features incidents from 2017 through 2022, compiled from public records requests in every state. The findings, the group says, suggest that despite widespread protests against police brutality following the murder of George Floyd in 2020, overall use of force has remained steady since then – and in many jurisdictions, has increased.

The data builds on past reports that found US police kill roughly 1,200 people each year, or three people a day, a death toll that has crept up every year and dramatically exceeds rates in comparable nations. The nonfatal force statistics and accompanying report illustrate how the killings are just a small fraction of broader police violence and injuries caused by law enforcement.