ABSTRACT
Chapter 4 presents the data analysis and results. The largest threat from an unarmed offender when deadly force was used was from physical assaults (47.3%), specifically striking, wrestling, or struggling with the officer. This is consistent with other studies and official data published by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted. Most police officers were not indicted (92.9%) following a fatal shooting; however, indictments for an accidental shooting/unintentional discharge and perceptual threats were slightly higher than expected. The yearly incidence of unarmed threats and unarmed threats resulting in indictment are also established using a subset of data on police-citizen encounters from the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. To help establish risk, Pareto analysis was conducted, which shows just four categories of unarmed encounters (23.5%) account for 60.7% of the fatalities. Overall, the findings suggest that there are likely additional factors driving the decision to indict an officer for fatally shooting an unarmed citizen other than sociodemographic factors such as age, race, or sex.
