A database set up by the FBI to track incidents of police violence and abuse is at risk of shutting down because local, state, federal and tribal law enforcement agencies are not submitting data in sufficient quantities to meet federal guidelines, the Washington Post reports.
Data sent to the National Use-of-Force Data Collection program, set up by the FBI in 2019, cover less than 60% of the police officers in the United States, the threshold set by the Office of Management and Budget to ensure the data are representative. If the dataset doesn’t hit the 60% threshold by the end of 2022, the OMB guidelines require the effort to be halted. Currently, 57% of all officers in law enforcement agencies are reported.
“Due to insufficient participation from law enforcement agencies,” the GAO wrote, “the FBI faces risks that it may not meet the participation thresholds” established by OMB, “and therefore may never publish use of force incident data.”
Given the trajectory of increasing participation–from 44% in its first year to 55% last year–the FBI is confident the project will hit its goal. “[T]he FBI believes the agreed upon thresholds will be met to allow the data collection to continue, and is taking steps to increase participation in data collection efforts,” said Assistant Attorney General Lee J. Lofthus in a statement, adding that DOJ “sent a letter to federal law enforcement agencies encouraging their participation.”