Although no reliable official data currently exist on the number of law enforcement-related deaths each year in the U.S., counting these deaths can and should be done because the data constitute crucial public health information that could help prevent future deaths, according to a new study in PLOS Medicine from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The authors propose that all law enforcement-related deaths, including people killed by police as well as police killed in the line of duty, be treated not just as criminal data but as a "notifiable condition," and that they be reported to the Centers for Disease Control by public health and medical professionals and published on a weekly basis, as are a host of other conditions ranging from poisonings to pertussis to polio.
Poll Question:
Do you think that police killings and deaths should be viewed as “notifiable conditions” and treated as public health issues?
Yes
79
No
86
