A subset of the Washington Post database. Contains records of every fatal police shooting by an on-duty officer since January 1, 2015.
Format
A data frame with 6421 rows and 12 variables.
- date
date of fatal shooting.
- manner_of_death
shot or shot and Tasered.
- armed
Indicates if the victim was armed with some sort of implement that a police officer believed could inflict harm.
- age
the age of the victim.
- gender
The gender of the victim. The Post identifies victims by the gender they identify with if reports indicate that it differs from their biological sex.
- race
W White non-Hispanic; B Black non-Hispanic; A Asian; N Native American; H Hispanic; O Other None unknown.
- city
The municipality where the fatal shooting took place. Note that in some cases this field may contain a county name if a more specific municipality is unavailable or unknown.
- state
two-letter postal code abbreviation.
- signs_of_mental_illness
If news reports have indicated the victim had a history of mental health issues, expressed suicidal intentions or was experiencing mental distress at the time of the shooting.
- threat_level
The general criteria for the attack label was that there was the most direct and immediate threat to life that would include incidents where officers or others were shot at, threatened with a gun, attacked with other weapons or physical force, etc. ; the attack category is meant to flag the highest level of threat; the other and undetermined categories represent all remaining cases; other includes many incidents where officers or others faced significant threats.
- flee
If news reports have indicated the victim was moving away from officers by Foot, by Car, or Not fleeing.
- body_camera
If news reports have indicated an officer was wearing a body camera and it may have recorded some portion of the incident.
Examples
library(dplyr)
# List race frequency and percentage
fatal_police_shootings %>%
group_by(race) %>%
summarize(n = n()) %>%
mutate(freq = n / sum(n) * 100)
#> # A tibble: 7 × 3
#> race n freq
#> <chr> <int> <dbl>
#> 1 "" 666 10.4
#> 2 "A" 105 1.64
#> 3 "B" 1528 23.8
#> 4 "H" 1066 16.6
#> 5 "N" 90 1.40
#> 6 "O" 47 0.732
#> 7 "W" 2919 45.5
# List different weapons that victims were armed with
fatal_police_shootings %>%
distinct(armed)
#> armed
#> 1 gun
#> 2 unarmed
#> 3 toy weapon
#> 4 nail gun
#> 5 knife
#> 6
#> 7 shovel
#> 8 vehicle
#> 9 hammer
#> 10 hatchet
#> 11 sword
#> 12 machete
#> 13 box cutter
#> 14 undetermined
#> 15 metal object
#> 16 screwdriver
#> 17 lawn mower blade
#> 18 flagpole
#> 19 guns and explosives
#> 20 cordless drill
#> 21 crossbow
#> 22 BB gun
#> 23 metal pole
#> 24 Taser
#> 25 metal pipe
#> 26 metal hand tool
#> 27 blunt object
#> 28 metal stick
#> 29 sharp object
#> 30 meat cleaver
#> 31 carjack
#> 32 chain
#> 33 contractor's level
#> 34 railroad spikes
#> 35 stapler
#> 36 beer bottle
#> 37 unknown weapon
#> 38 binoculars
#> 39 bean-bag gun
#> 40 baseball bat and fireplace poker
#> 41 straight edge razor
#> 42 gun and knife
#> 43 ax
#> 44 brick
#> 45 baseball bat
#> 46 hand torch
#> 47 chain saw
#> 48 garden tool
#> 49 scissors
#> 50 pole
#> 51 pick-axe
#> 52 flashlight
#> 53 baton
#> 54 spear
#> 55 chair
#> 56 pitchfork
#> 57 hatchet and gun
#> 58 rock
#> 59 piece of wood
#> 60 pipe
#> 61 glass shard
#> 62 motorcycle
#> 63 pepper spray
#> 64 metal rake
#> 65 crowbar
#> 66 oar
#> 67 machete and gun
#> 68 tire iron
#> 69 air conditioner
#> 70 pole and knife
#> 71 baseball bat and bottle
#> 72 fireworks
#> 73 pen
#> 74 chainsaw
#> 75 gun and sword
#> 76 gun and car
#> 77 pellet gun
#> 78 claimed to be armed
#> 79 incendiary device
#> 80 samurai sword
#> 81 bow and arrow
#> 82 gun and vehicle
#> 83 vehicle and gun
#> 84 wrench
#> 85 walking stick
#> 86 barstool
#> 87 grenade
#> 88 BB gun and vehicle
#> 89 wasp spray
#> 90 air pistol
#> 91 Airsoft pistol
#> 92 baseball bat and knife
#> 93 vehicle and machete
#> 94 ice pick
#> 95 car, knife and mace
#> 96 bottle
#> 97 gun and machete
#> 98 microphone
#> 99 knife and vehicle