Date: May 24, 2025

Overview:
Five years after the 2020 killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, which sparked nationwide protests and demands for police reform, the number of people killed by police in the United States continues to increase. In 2024, police killed at least 1,226 individuals, an 18% rise compared to 2019. While reforms like improved training and accountability measures were introduced, racial disparities persist, with Black Americans and Native Americans facing disproportionately high rates of fatal police encounters. The rise in police killings, despite declining overall homicide rates, has raised questions about contributing factors such as crime trends, gun ownership, and regional policy differences. This article examines verified data and stakeholder perspectives to provide a transparent view of the issue.

Facts:

• In 2024, police killed 1,226 people, up 18% from 1,039 in 2019, based on data from The Washington Post and Mapping Police Violence.
• Since 2015, police killings per 100,000 people by race: Native American (6.8), Black (6.7), Hispanic (2.9), White (2.5), Asian (1.0), Other (0.2). Race was unavailable in 11% of cases.
• Killings of armed individuals have increased, while unarmed killings dropped from 152 in 2015 to 53 in 2024. Replica weapon killings also declined.
• Since Floyd’s death, 51 people were killed by physical restraint, including Frank Tyson, an unarmed Black man in Canton, Ohio, in 2024. Two officers were charged with homicide in Tyson’s case.
• In 2024, 16 officers were charged with murder or manslaughter in fatal shootings, unchanged from 2020.
• Fatal police shootings in Democratic-leaning states declined 15% since 2014, while rising 23% in Republican-leaning states, with higher rates in rural and exurban areas.
• FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) data shows violent crime increased 5.6% from 2019 to 2022 but stabilized in 2023. No direct correlation between crime rates and police killings is established in available data.
• Over 40% of U.S. adults report household gun ownership, per 2023 Gallup polls, potentially increasing risks of armed encounters.

Perspectives:

• Mapping Police Violence (Nonprofit): This group argues that systemic racism in policing drives disproportionate killings of Black and Native Americans, emphasizing that reforms like body cameras and de-escalation training have not reduced overall fatalities. They advocate for reallocating police budgets to community-based safety programs.
• Texas Civil Rights Project (Advocacy Group): This organization highlights resistance to accountability in conservative states like Texas, where officials have opposed transparency measures, contributing to rising police killings in Republican-leaning areas.
• National Fraternal Order of Police (Police Union): The union asserts that rising gun ownership and violent crime rates heighten risks for officers, justifying use of force in many encounters. They argue that reforms often unfairly restrict officers’ ability to ensure public safety.
• American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU): The ACLU contends that rollbacks of reform laws, such as Alabama’s 2025 law shielding officers from prosecution, perpetuate a culture of impunity, particularly in conservative states, undermining trust in policing.
• U.S. Department of Justice (Federal Government): In 2025, the DOJ announced it would end oversight of 24 police departments accused of civil rights violations, stating that local agencies should handle reforms. This reflects a shift toward supporting law enforcement autonomy.
• Criminologists (Academic Experts): Experts like Justin Nix note that sparse data on nonfatal shootings and unclear weapon status in some cases limit conclusions about trends. Societal factors like gun ownership prevalence and public distrust may cause increases in deadly encounters.

Considerations:

• Tracking crime data is essential to understand if various methods of policing and resourcing work for crime prevention.
• The judicial doctrine of “Qualified Immunity” shields law enforcement from civil penalty accountability for negligent acts.
• Conservative states may reflect higher killing rates due to less oversight.
• Declining public trust in police, fueled by high-profile cases, may lead to more resistance during encounters, escalating violence.
• Rollbacks of federal oversight and state reforms signal a shift toward prioritizing law enforcement discretion, potentially reducing accountability.
• Short-term increases in violent crime (2019-2022) may influence police aggressiveness, but long-term stabilization suggests other factors drive killing trends.
• Community-based safety initiatives could address root causes of violence, reducing reliance on lethal policing in the long term.

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