Are police officers getting worse or is the apparent increase in excessive force nothing more than an increase in cell phone videos, citizen journalism and and public scrutiny?
One of the reasons we don’t have data on police use of excessive force is because compiling this information relies on law enforcement agencies being forthcoming about these incidents. Which they aren’t.
What about the federal government? In 1994, Congress passed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act which requires the US Attorney General to “acquire data about the use of excessive force by law enforcement officers.” The Justice Department was also required to publish an annual report on the data collected.
And . . that’s pretty much the last anyone heard of that.