Fresno PD Officer-Involved Shootings Research presented at Accredidation public forum

Report on Fresno Police Department Justifiable Homicides
Prepared for the FPD Accreditation public forum, 4/25/05

Mark Stout, Central California Criminal Justice Committee,
based on outline from Stephen Mensel, Esq.

Federal DOJ Data 1976-2002
The number of justifiable homicides has been declining in the U.S.
• Generally, the number of justifiable homicides committed by police exceeded the number committed by citizens.
• In the last 10 years, the number of justifiable homicides has declined 29%.

Note: Justifiable homicides are defined as the killing of a felon by a law enforcement officer in the line of duty or the killing of a felon during the commission of a felony by a private citizen.
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/justify.htm#justifyage

US population 294,000,000
Average justifiable homicides by police per year late 2000 - 2002
2000 309
2001 378
2002 341
= average of 343 per year

About one justifiable homicide for every 700,000 in US population per year. City of Fresno population about 440,000 people (2000 Census)
• We should expect 0.63 justifiable homicides by Fresno PD per year.

For my study period of 1998-2004, there were 27 fatal Fresno PD officer-involved shootings (including one convicted murder by an officer in uniform).
• FPD is averaging 3.85 justifiable homicides per year, over six times the per-capita national average!

Contrast this with San Jose PD, which has roughly ¼ the per-capita fatal officer-involved shootings per year compared to Fresno PD.
• San Jose has an Independent Police Auditor (IPA), which we believe would be of much greater significance in curbing excessive justifiable homicides by the Fresno PD.

Detailed FPD shooting incident data and ethnic/racial analysis:
http://greenenergy.homelinux.net/cccjc/FPDShootings98-04.htm

Report from San Jose Independent Police Auditor, for comparison:
http://greenenergy.homelinux.net/cccjc/IPA_SJPD_Shootings93-03.pdf