Police Killings of Black & Brown People May Be Double Previous Estimates: La Raza Database Project

The newly released Raza Database Project reveals the number of Brown and Black people killed by police in the United States may be more than double the amount that is widely reported. Statistician and demographer Jesus Garcia explains how the team merged data sets from independent research projects on police violence to more accurately determine the ethnicities of victims. These are “terrible numbers to look at,” says Garcia. “The results are stark and bare.” Project manager Ivette Xochiyotl Boyzo calls the research “groundbreaking” because of the lack of federal data collection on police violence. “It’s so unfortunate that there’s not any type of actual collection of information against these types of violences,” says Boyzo, who calls for accountability. “What’s the most disturbing out of all of this, it’s the impunity rate.”