The number of people killed by police in the U.S. reached a new record in 2024, but the increase wasn’t as dramatic as it has been in recent years, according to an analysis released Tuesday.
The Mapping Police Violence found that at least 1,365 people were killed by law enforcement last year — a slight uptick from the 1,329 civilians who died at the hands of police in 2023. The project from police reform advocacy group Campaign Zero has been tracking police killings in the country since 2013.
May 2024 was recorded as the second deadliest month since the group began tracking the killings, with 136 killed by officers. That number follows closely behind August 2023, which had a record 137 deaths.
In August 2024, the fifth deadliest month, about 125 people were killed by law enforcement, according to the report.
The number of annual deaths attributed to police officers has climbed steadily since 2020 — the same year a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd, fueling Black Lives Matter protests and other demonstrations around the country.
The per capita increase from 2023 to 2024 was less than half a percent, while the per capita number jumped 6.5 percent from 2022 to 2023.
The project counts as police killings any “incident where a law enforcement officer (off-duty or on-duty) applies, on a civilian, lethal force resulting in the civilian being killed whether it is considered ‘justified’ or ‘unjustified’ by the U.S. Criminal Legal System.”
The annual report also found that Black people are nearly three times as likely than white people to be killed at the hands of police in 2024.
There is no formal government tracking of officer-involved deaths nationally.
The Mapping Police Violence report is compiled from media reports and thousands of hours of research from the project’s analysts.
