WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The US police practice of voluntarily reporting cases in which officers kill citizens is a system that needs to change and one that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is trying to improve, FBI Director James Comey said in a US House Appropriations Subcommittee hearing.
Earlier in March 2015, the US Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) released a report that said the program recording the number of police deaths in the United States only captures half of police-caused homicides.
Additionally, the police program is voluntary, and a number of law enforcement agencies do not consistently submit death statistics or do not submit any at all.
Comey said that he was in the process of working with local sheriffs and police chiefs to try to improve the police homicide reporting system. Meanwhile, the FBI Director said the Bureau would also work with the US Congress to figure out incentives to give law enforcement officials to submit their agency’s homicide data.