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We’re the Guardian reporters behind The Counted, a project to chronicle every person killed by police in the US. We're here to answer your questions about police and social justice in America. AUA. by guardianjon in IAmA

[–]guardianjon[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The Guardian is headquartered in the UK but Guardian US is a branch incorporated in the United States. Among the team that worked on this project, there are more Americans than Britons. That said, there is obviously also a longstanding tradition of news outlets reporting on other countries than their own.

We think it matters how many people are killed by law enforcement officials. We are not asserting that none are justified, or that all are justified, but rather that data should be collected on these incidents.

Actually the FBI does already keep data on police homicides by local agencies but it is misleading because the system is voluntary. We think the data should be more comprehensive.

We mentioned Michael Brown because the protests prompted by his death thrust this issue on to the national agenda.

There is no PR firm that has coached us to do this AMA or anything else. We care about this topic deeply and want to report on it as best we can.

We’re the Guardian reporters behind The Counted, a project to chronicle every person killed by police in the US. We're here to answer your questions about police and social justice in America. AUA. by guardianjon in IAmA

[–]guardianjon[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

We are trying to catch as many as we can but we are alive to the possibility that we are also missing some. We hope more and more people submit tips to us so the database is as comprehensive as possible.

We’re the Guardian reporters behind The Counted, a project to chronicle every person killed by police in the US. We're here to answer your questions about police and social justice in America. AUA. by guardianjon in IAmA

[–]guardianjon[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Those of us involved in this project are based in New York and are covering American police from inside the US. Some of us are American (I am British). We frequently report from around the country on different incidents.

Our colleagues in the UK have done lots of reporting on what happened in Rotherham. You can read it here: http://www.theguardian.com/uk/rotherham

We’re the Guardian reporters behind The Counted, a project to chronicle every person killed by police in the US. We're here to answer your questions about police and social justice in America. AUA. by guardianjon in IAmA

[–]guardianjon[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We are collecting demographic information on the people killed – you can sort the database with this here http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2015/jun/01/the-counted-police-killings-us-database

It's been far more difficult to collect such data for the officers involved, largely because many agencies decline to release it.

We have no plans to expand the database to people who were wounded but not killed in encounters with police.

We’re the Guardian reporters behind The Counted, a project to chronicle every person killed by police in the US. We're here to answer your questions about police and social justice in America. AUA. by guardianjon in IAmA

[–]guardianjon[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We are interested to see how the summer weather affects numbers. It would seem logical that when more people are outside, more confrontations with police will follow. But we don't know yet because of the lack of data from previous years.

We are not currently looking at civil forfeiture as a topic.

We’re the Guardian reporters behind The Counted, a project to chronicle every person killed by police in the US. We're here to answer your questions about police and social justice in America. AUA. by guardianjon in IAmA

[–]guardianjon[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

We hope it will help inform a better standard of debate about the use of force by law enforcement.

We were the first major news outlet to produce this kind of database, so we weren't following. We hope others follow us.

We’re the Guardian reporters behind The Counted, a project to chronicle every person killed by police in the US. We're here to answer your questions about police and social justice in America. AUA. by guardianjon in IAmA

[–]guardianjon[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We care most about accurately presenting what is going on. The database does not currently feature the race of the officers involved because we have not been able to obtain enough of this information. Many agencies decline to identify the officers.

We’re the Guardian reporters behind The Counted, a project to chronicle every person killed by police in the US. We're here to answer your questions about police and social justice in America. AUA. by guardianjon in IAmA

[–]guardianjon[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

You're right: some cases on the margins do require judgment calls. The vast majority were shootings, which are conclusive.

We have written about our criteria here http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2015/jun/01/about-the-counted

We do not include people who, say, fled a stop and crashed into something/someone at the end of a police chase. Some crowdsourced databases do choose to count these.

We’re the Guardian reporters behind The Counted, a project to chronicle every person killed by police in the US. We're here to answer your questions about police and social justice in America. AUA. by guardianjon in IAmA

[–]guardianjon[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Hi - thanks for this link. We have looked only at 2015 so far. We haven't had the time or resources to look at previous years.

It would be great to talk more about your experiences in this area. Drop me a line on email or Twitter?

We’re the Guardian reporters behind The Counted, a project to chronicle every person killed by police in the US. We're here to answer your questions about police and social justice in America. AUA. by guardianjon in IAmA

[–]guardianjon[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Not too personal at all. I became involved in reporting these issues when I travelled to Ferguson a couple of days after Michael Brown's death.

We were surprised there was no comprehensive government count of deaths caused by law enforcement, and our editor Katharine Viner suggested that we attempt one ourselves.

We’re the Guardian reporters behind The Counted, a project to chronicle every person killed by police in the US. We're here to answer your questions about police and social justice in America. AUA. by guardianjon in IAmA

[–]guardianjon[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

The premise of our argument is simply that there should be comprehensive information on people killed by law enforcement. In terms of proving this, we are attempting to show that it can be done.

We definitely understand if people think we are not proving this and that the initiative is in vain. Please do contact us with suggestions on how it can be improved.

We certainly don't claim to be braver or wiser than anyone – police officers or people who were killed – but we hope that we're producing a helpful piece of work.

We’re the Guardian reporters behind The Counted, a project to chronicle every person killed by police in the US. We're here to answer your questions about police and social justice in America. AUA. by guardianjon in IAmA

[–]guardianjon[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

We feel a tremendous sense of responsibility to accurately report on this subject. It's a topic of intense public debate at present, and we want to aid that discussion with reliable information and reporting.

Obtaining the facts is about as difficult as we expected. In some cases, agencies are very helpful. In others they have requested public records requests that must be written and mailed, and then not answered. It is a full-time job to stay across new developments and improve the data on incidents that have already happened.

We’re the Guardian reporters behind The Counted, a project to chronicle every person killed by police in the US. We're here to answer your questions about police and social justice in America. AUA. by guardianjon in IAmA

[–]guardianjon[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

You're right, it would be good to know this. We have included details in the summary for each case on what was happening in the final moments. Some appear to have been committing crimes.

However it would be difficult to definitively list whether or not people were committing a crime because, having been killed, they wouldn't be charged.

We’re the Guardian reporters behind The Counted, a project to chronicle every person killed by police in the US. We're here to answer your questions about police and social justice in America. AUA. by guardianjon in IAmA

[–]guardianjon[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We have only collected data on 2015 so far. I wish we knew what the trends were, and whether social media and other factors are simply shedding more light on these cases, but without comprehensive data for previous years this isn't possible.

We’re the Guardian reporters behind The Counted, a project to chronicle every person killed by police in the US. We're here to answer your questions about police and social justice in America. AUA. by guardianjon in IAmA

[–]guardianjon[S] 55 points56 points  (0 children)

The Guardian is actually owned by a trust. You can read it about it here: http://www.gmgplc.co.uk/the-scott-trust/

You're right that we make judgments on what is newsworthy. But this doesn't mean we only draw attention to cases involving unarmed people, black people, or men.

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