U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Statistics November 2011, NCJ 235385 Arrest-Related Deaths, 2003-2009 - Statistical Tables By Andrea M. Burch, BJS Statistician --------------------------------------------------- This file is text on without graphics and many of the tables. A Zip archive of the tables in this report in spreadsheet format (.cvs) and the full report including tables and graphs in .pdf format are available from http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbse&sid=2228 This report is one in a series. More recent editions may be available. To view a list of all reports in the series go to http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=dcdetail&iid-74 --------------------------------------------------- From 2003 through 2009, a total of 4,813 deaths were reported to the Bureau of Justice Statistics' (BJS) Arrest-Related Deaths (ARD) program. Of these, about 6 in 10 deaths (2,931) were classified as homicide by law enforcement personnel, and 4 in 10 (1,882) were attributed to other manners of death. Suicide and death by intoxication each accounted for 11% of reported arrest-related deaths, accidental injury for 6%, and natural causes for 5% (figure 1).Deaths with manners classified as undetermined or those in which manners were unknown represented about 6% of reported arrest-related deaths. During the same period, the FBI estimated nearly 98 million arrests in the United States. While men comprised about 76% of reported arrests, they represented 95% of persons who died during the process of arrest (figure 2). As a group, arrest related decedents tended to be older than the arrest population. Those under the age of 25 accounted for 45% of reported arrests but less than a quarter (22%) of arrest-related deaths. The ARD program is a national collection of persons who die in the custody or under the restraint of state or local law enforcement personnel. Deaths are reportable to the program without considering whether physical custody had been established or whether a formal arrest process had been initiated prior to the time of death. Th e ARD collection also includes the deaths of persons attempting to elude law enforcement during the course of apprehension. Data collected from January 2003 through December 2009 detail the percent and type of arrest-related deaths, as well as the demographic characteristics of decedents and the law enforcement agencies involved in the death. Arrest-related deaths are under-reported. BJS did not attempt to estimate for partial or non-responding jurisdictions. Data are more representative of the nature of arrest-related deaths than the volume at which they occur. Due to variation in reporting, caution should be used in comparing counts from year to year. ********************************************** Highlights Manner of death * Homicide by law enforcement personnel accounted for 2,931(61%) of reported arrest-related deaths from 2003 through 2009 (table 1). * Suicide and death by intoxication each accounted for about 11% of reported arrest-related deaths (table 2). * Deaths due to natural causes were the least common type of arrest-related death, comprising 5% (244) of all reported deaths. * Of all arrest-related deaths reported from 2003 through 2009, about 6% (273) had manners of death that were either classified as undetermined or were unreported. Decedent characteristics * From 2003 through 2009, males comprised 95% of all reported deaths during the process of arrest (table 4). * Whites accounted for 42% of reported arrest-related deaths, 32% were black, and 20% were Hispanic. * More than half (55%) of all persons who died during the process of arrest were between the ages of 25 and 44. Manner of death and decedent characteristics * Among reported arrest-related suicides, 60% of decedents were white, 20% were Hispanic, and 15% were black (table 6). * Of all arrest-related deaths by intoxication, blacks were 41% of reported decedents, whites were 34%, and Hispanics were 21%. * Among males, homicide accounted for 62% of reported arrest-related deaths. Of all females, homicide represented 49% of arrest-related deaths (table 7). * A higher percentage of female arrest-related deaths than male deaths were attributed to intoxication (16% compared to 11%) and natural causes (12% compared to 5%). * Adults between ages 25 and 44 represented 70% of all reported arrest-related deaths due to intoxication. * Juveniles (persons under the age of 18) comprised 3% (127) of all arrest-related deaths reported from 2003 through 2009. Most juvenile deaths (78%) were homicides. Incident circumstances * The FBI estimated state and local law enforcement officers made 97.9 million arrests from 2003 through 2009. During the same period, 4,813 arrest-related deaths were reported to BJS (table 12). * Of reported arrest-related deaths, 45% of decedents allegedly engaged in assault either immediately prior to or during the process of arrest (table 13). *No criminal charges were intended to be filed against 163 (3%) persons who died during the process of arrest. *Among arrest-related deaths attributed to homicide, 75% of decedents allegedly engaged in violent offenses (table 14). Law enforcement agency characteristics * Nationwide, 7% (1,187) of state and local law enforcement agencies with 100 or more full-time sworn personnel employed 64% of these law enforcement personnel and accounted for 75% (3,613) of all reported arrest-related deaths (table 15). * State and local law enforcement agencies employing fewer than 10 full-time sworn personnel (8,796) represented 49% of all agencies nationwide, employed 5% (34,497) of all full-time sworn personnel, and accounted for about 2% (117) of reported arrest-related deaths. *********************************************** ___________________________________________________ List of Tables Table 1. Number of reported arrest-related deaths, by manner of death, 2003-2009 Table 2. Percent of reported arrest-related deaths, by manner of death, 2003-2009 Table 3. Number of reported arrest-related deaths, by demographic characteristics, 2003-2009 Table 4. Percent of reported arrest-related deaths, by demographic characteristics, 2003-2009 Table 5. Number of reported arrest-related deaths, by manner of death and demographic characteristics, 2003-2009 Table 6. Percent of reported arrest-related deaths, by manner of death and demographic characteristics, 2003-2009 Table 7. Percent of reported arrest-related deaths, by demographic characteristics and manner of death, 2003-2009 Table 8. Number of reported arrest-related deaths, by jurisdiction, 2003-2009 Table 9. Number of reported arrest-related deaths, by jurisdiction and manner of death, 2003-2009 Table 10. Percent of reported arrest-related deaths, by jurisdiction and manner of death, 2003-2009 Table 11. Number of arresting agencies with at least one reported arrest-related death, by jurisdiction, 2003-2009 Table 12. Demographic characteristics of all reported arrests and persons who died in the process of arrest, 2003-2009 Table 13. Reported arrest-related deaths, by incident circumstances, 2003-2009 Table 14. Percent of reported arrest-related deaths, by incident circumstances and manner of death, 2003-2009 Table 15. Number of law enforcement agencies, full-time sworn personnel, and reported arrest-related deaths, by agency characteristics, 2003-2009 Table 16. Number of reported arrest-related deaths, by characteristics of the law enforcement agency involved and manner of death, 2003-2009 Table 17. Percent of reported arrest-related deaths, by characteristics of the law enforcement agency involved and manner of death, 2003-2009 __________________________________________________ Methodology The Arrest-Related Deaths (ARD) data collection cycle begins January 1 and ends December 31 of the calendar year. State Reporting Coordinators (SRC) assist the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) in collecting information regarding arrest-related deaths. The role of each SRC is to identify deaths reportable to the ARD program, compile information from valid sources regarding the circumstances related to the death, complete CJ-11 and CJ-11A data collection forms (http://www.bjs.gov), and submit data to BJS quarterly or annually. Annual data are available from 2003 through 2009 in aggregate form. All information identifying individual decedents is kept confidential. Defining deaths "in the process of arrest" Although the Deaths in Custody Reporting Act of 2000 (DICRA), Public Law 106-297, mandated that all in custody deaths be counted, the legislation did not specify the meaning of the phrase "in the process of arrest." BJS staff consulted with the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), the National Sheriffs' Association (NSA), and criminal justice researchers to identify which circumstances involved an arrest process. For this data collection, BJS defines -in the process of arrest" to include all circumstances in which a person is in the custody or under the restraint of law enforcement officers. This definition includes situations in which a formal arrest process was neither initiated nor intended. It includes instances in which law enforcement personnel actively pursues or attempts to apprehend a criminal suspect, regardless of whether physical custody was established. In addition, it includes deaths that involved law enforcement assistance in restraining and transporting individuals in need of medical or mental health care. Exclusions Deaths that occurred in a jail or other long-term holding facility and deaths that occurred in the custody of federal law enforcement officers were outside the scope of the ARD program and excluded from the analysis. All records submitted to the ARD program were cross-referenced with records submitted to BJS's Deaths in Custody Reporting Program - Jails collection in order to ensure cases were not duplicated across collections. If the death was recorded in both collections, the Jails component took priority and the record was removed from the ARD collection. The DICRA did not apply to federal law enforcement agencies. Deaths occurring in the presence of officers from federal agencies (i.e., FBI, DEA, or Marshals Service) were only reportable to the ARD program if an officer from either a state or local law enforcement agency was also present during the event causing the death. Arrest-related deaths that did not involve either a state or local law enforcement agency were excluded from the collection. Role of State Reporting Coordinators Participation in the ARD program is voluntary. SRCs may select any methodology--or a combination of approaches--that achieves a reliable measure of arrest-related deaths. Some methods for identifying arrest-related deaths include surveying all police departments in the state, surveying all county medical examiners or coroner's offices in the state, extracting data from other collections (i.e., FBI's Uniform Crime Reports and CDC's National Violent Death Reporting System), and conducting multi-media searches. BJS recommends SRCs do not solely rely on a system of voluntary self-reporting by state and local law enforcement agencies. Once a reportable death is identified, the SRC is responsible for obtaining information regarding the death and completing an arrest-related death incident report (CJ-11A). Most SRCs use multiple data sources to compile information required to complete the CJ-11A incident reports. A survey of SRCs conducted in 2007 indicated that of the 47 states participating in the ARD program at some point between 2003 and 2006, 42 used multiple sources to obtain information on arrest-related deaths, while 30 states reported at least 3 different sources of data. State and local law enforcement agencies were the most common source of data used by SRCs. Law enforcement agencies voluntarily reported arrest-related deaths to 40 data providers. In California and Texas, law enforcement agencies were required by state law to submit arrest-related deaths. The SRCs were asked to work with the law enforcement agency involved in the death to collect the information requested on the CJ-11A form. In instances where the law enforcement agency involved in the death did not complete the CJ-11A form, the SRC was asked to obtain information from official source documents (such as a police report or death certificate) or indirectly through oral communication, press releases from the involved law enforcement agency or medical office, legal proceedings, or other vetted sources of information. Media accounts of the event and death were not considered sources of official information. Subsequently, SRCs were discouraged from using media accounts of the event as their primary source of information when completing the CJ-11A form. In the event that the SRC could not obtain information from any other source, BJS authorized the use of media accounts to supplement incomplete CJ-11A forms. Program Coverage The ARD program was initiated in order to comply with requirements set forth in the DICRA. The legislation required the U.S Department of Justice to begin a quarterly collection of individual death records for all persons incarcerated in local jails, state prisons, juvenile correctional facilities, as well as "any person who is in the process of arrest." Since the expiration of the DICRA legislation in 2006, BJS has continued to collect ARD data, but no longer requires quarterly submissions. As the statistical agency for the Justice Department, BJS began implementing the ARD data collection in 2003. When the DICRA was enacted, only California and Texas (each pursuant to state law) conducted a statewide count of all arrest-related deaths. In the remaining 48 states and the District of Columbia, the ARD program was the first attempt to perform a comprehensive count of all deaths occurring during the process of arrest. The attorneys general of California and Texas agreed to complete statewide reports of arrest-related deaths for submission to BJS. In all other jurisdictions, BJS worked with state officials to determine which agency would collect arrest-related death reports. During reporting year 2006, a state criminal justice commission, commonly administered by the governor's office was the most common data reporting contact (22 states), followed by the state attorney general and state police department (8 states each) (see appendix table 1). In five states, the department of corrections took a lead role in compiling records. In over 30 states, the reporting office also served as a state criminal justice Statistical Analysis Center (SAC). While every state identified a data provider, three states-- Georgia, Maryland, and Montana--did not submit records during the 2003-2009 collection periods. Forty-seven states and the District of Columbia participated in the collection at some point, but the participation of some states varied by year. (See appendix table 2 for a summary of state reporting participation.) Although a jurisdiction may not have participated in the ARD program in a given year, arrest- related deaths may have been identified and reported by BJS staff. In an effort to increase the ARD program's national coverage, BJS began exploring the use of internet-based searches to retrospectively identify arrest-related deaths occurring from 2007 through 2009. BJS staff conducted online media searches based on 12 key terms and identified websites dedicated to either in-custody deaths or deaths associated with the usage of specific weapons, such as conductive energy devices. Once an arrest-related death was identified, all available information was sent to the appropriate SRC for verification and follow-up. The SRC was asked to complete a CJ-11A form using official source documents and then return the form to BJS. More detailed information is available at www.bjs.gov. *********************************************** Office of Justice Programs * Innovation * Partnerships * Safer Neighborhoods * http://www.ojp.gov ************************************************ The Bureau of Justice Statistics is the statistical agency of the U.S. Department of Justice. James P. Lynch is director. These Statistical Tables were prepared by Andrea M. Burch. Jessica Rexroat verified the report. Morgan Young and Jill Thomas edited the report, Barbara Quinn and Tina Dorsey produced the report, and Jayne E. Robinson prepared the report for final printing under the supervision of Doris J. James. November 2011, NCJ 235385 This report in PDF and in ASCII and its related statistical tables are available at the BJS website: http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=2228. ************************************************ 11/7/11 JER 2:28pm