Holder calls for better data on police use of force

Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday called for better, comprehensive data on how often police officers use force or are themselves attacked, joining a growing chorus of police union officials, academics and others who say there is an urgent need for more detailed statistical data on officer fatalities and deaths of civilians at the hands of police officers.

"This would represent a common-sense step that would begin to address serious concerns about police officer safety, as well as the need to safeguard civil liberties," Holder said in a speech during a justice department ceremony in Washington, D.C., honoring Rev. Martin Luther King.

The FBI publishes annual data on "justifiable homicides" by police officers, but those figures are incomplete because the reporting by local police departments is voluntary and not all submit their statistics. A recent analysis by the Wall Street Journal found more than 550 incidents of killings by police that were not included in the FBI figures.

The recent police-involved deaths of black men have sparked a nationwide debate about the issue of police killings, but advocates on all sides of the issue have been frustrated by the lack of reliable data. Efforts to explore how frequently officers use force were stymied by poor record-keeping. After the killings of two police officers in New York by a man who later fatally shot himself, the Fraternal Union of Police called for a better accounting of officer fatalities.

Holder said better data are needed on both categories to provide a more accurate picture of relations between police and the communities they serve. "It is incumbent upon all of us to protect both the safety of our police officers and the rights and well-being of all of our citizens," Holder said. "We can, and we must examine new ways to do both."

Separately, a national poll released Thursday, conducted by Reuters and the Ipsos polling organization, showed that 31 percent of Americans believe police officers "routinely lie to serve their own interests." Among African-Americans, that number jumped to 45 percent. 

The public is also deeply divided about whether "police officers tend to unfairly target minorities." Overall, 37 percent said that police do unfairly target minorities, while 43 disagreed. But the numbers were dramatically different when looking at the opinions of minorities: 69 percent of blacks and 54 percent of Hispanics agreed that police tend to unfairly target minorities. 

Al Jazeera and wire services