The federal government has struggled for years to track deaths that happened after police used force like physical restraints and Tasers that isn’t supposed to be lethal. After George Floyd was killed under a police officer’s knee, a team of reporters led by The Associated Press set out to do their own count. Filing thousands of public records requests for documents and body-camera videos, their investigation cataloged more than 1,000 deaths over a decade. The work took three years and required maneuvering around consistent efforts by police departments and other officials to withhold information about cases. The new database that is the result is the most complete yet of deaths following “less-lethal force” that officers use every day.
