FBI request on reporting deadly-force use falls flat

Few police agencies choosing to participate

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When the FBI asked police departments around the country to help it compile a database tracking officers' use of deadly force, few responded, including in Arkansas.

What started as a federal initiative to "promote more informed conversations regarding law enforcement use of force" has failed as too few agencies have been willing to participate.

Nationwide, only about 27% of law enforcement agencies, accounting for 42% of sworn officers, have participated in the program.

[INTERACTIVE MAP: Map of agencies submitting use-of-force data not showing up above? Click here » arkansasonline.com/613force/]

In Arkansas, the number is even lower.

Of the 237 law enforcement agencies in Arkansas, only eight sent data to the FBI in 2020 -- the Arkansas State Police; the sheriff's offices in Benton and Pulaski counties; and the police departments in Fort Smith, Quitman, Rogers, Springdale and the University of Central Arkansas.

Those agencies account for only about 3.3% of police and sheriff's offices in the state.

For some of the roughly 96.6% of law enforcement agencies in Arkansas that didn't participate, their reasoning is mostly quite simple -- because they didn't have to.

Little Rock police Lt. Casey Clark said the program being optional was the main reason the department didn't submit its data.

"The only rationale I can say is, it is not required," Clark said. "If they required it, we'd do it, but it's not like we're trying to hide anything."

The federal program started in 2019 after many high-profile police shootings ushered in a national discussion of policing and racism. The program is a part of the FBI national use-of-force data collection, which relies on law enforcement agencies to voluntarily submit their data to the FBI.

The program asks law enforcement agencies to submit data about incidents when an officer uses force that results in death or serious bodily injury or when an officer discharges a firearm "at or in the direction of a person."

In addition, the FBI also collects information from each incident such as date, time, place and whether it was an ambush.

While the program is backed by many organizations representing law enforcement officials, such as the International Association of Chiefs of Police, FBI officials have still been left scratching their heads.

In Little Rock, Clark said the department's use-of-force data is available for anyone who wants to request it.

The department posted use-of-force data on social media in September, with a goal of transparency after protests over policing and racism that arose last summer.

The data posted, which includes data on use-of-force incidents from 2009 to 2019, is slightly different from the FBI request, which relates only to incidents of deadly force. The Little Rock graphic includes all uses of force by police, not just deadly ones, Clark said.

"We are trying to be as transparent with it as we possibly can, and if the federal government wanted us to report -- if they made it a requirement -- we'd be happy to provide it," Clark said.

For the North Little Rock department, opting to not provide its use-of-force data with the FBI came down to two reasons -- the department recently named a new chief and it's upgrading the software that holds its data, making it difficult to distribute, said Sgt. Carmen Helton, a department spokeswoman.

Helton said the department does track of its deadly-force data, but recent circumstances have made it difficult to provide that information to the federal government.

"I guess all the information they were wanting, it's just more difficult to pull that information," Helton said.

Trista Petty, a spokeswoman for the Benton Police Department, said the agency didn't participate because the program is "voluntary."

It's been a struggle for the FBI to get enough police departments to send information to make the data set worthwhile. The bureau will name only the participating agencies, declining to voluntarily release the actual data about deadly-force incidents until certain goals are met.

No data will be released for states where departments representing less than 40% of sworn officers in the state will be covered.

Not all agencies find participating in the program difficult. Bill Sadler, a spokesman for the Arkansas State Police, said sending the data to the FBI was simple.

"The FBI has made it really simple through their reporting mechanism," Sadler said. "And no, it has not been complicated at all."

Sadler said that most of the requested data was already publicly available; the agency issues news releases when there is an officer-involved shooting and giving that data to the FBI didn't require much work.

"This is not something that is kept a secret," Sadler said.

Large departments in Arkansas aren't the only ones participating in the FBI program.. At some small departments that have few or no shootings, reporting the data is an easy ask, said Michael Hopper, a spokesman for the University of Central Arkansas Police Department.

"It's always good to participate in these sorts of programs that gather data like this to help agencies better understand if there is need for any additional types of training on this sort of stuff," Hopper said.

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