To increase public awareness of police misconduct in the state, The ACLU of Louisiana has launched a comprehensive dashboard of police killings and violence. ACLU Data Analyst Elijah Appelson said they created the dashboard to increase accessibility to the data and amplify the voices of individuals who are victims of police violence.
“Through a combination of data and narratives that we’ve put together, we’re really hoping to bring attention and to amplify the stories of those we are affected by the violence,” said Appelson.
A third reason for the dashboard is to ensure police accountability.
Appelson said as they compiled the data, they found three disturbing trends. Between January 2013 and January 2024, there have been 116 police killings over the 132-month period, almost one a month.
“I think one of the bigger that we found is that Black people in Louisiana are more than 2.66 times more likely to be killed by police than white people,” said Appelson.
The data also indicated 76% of those police killings were for non-violent offenses. For example, traffic stops, domestic disturbances, and mental health checks.
Because there are no mandates for law enforcement to report misconduct, Appelson said policing data is difficult to come. The ACLU is hoping the public will gain a better understanding of the prevalence of police violence in Louisiana and that local agencies can do their own analysis with the data.
“Because I think together we can find the problems that are affecting the public and for the public to know exactly how safe they are within their community,” said Appelson.
The ACLU also encourages those who’ve been victims of police violence to report such incidents on their website.
You can view the dashboard click here.
Comments