On December 18, 2014—in the immediate aftermath of the police killings of Eric Garner, Mike Brown, John Crawford, Tamir Rice, and Akai Gurley—Congress passed a law entitled the Death In Custody Reporting Act. It's embedded below or
you can see it here. President Obama signed it.
That makes it a law. In fact, "Public Law 113-242."
Here's an essential paragraph of the law:
The State shall report to the Attorney General, on a quarterly basis and pursuant to guidelines established by the Attorney General, information regarding the death of any person who is detained, under arrest, or is in the process of being arrested, is en route to be incarcerated, or is incarcerated at a municipal or county jail, State prison, State-run boot camp prison, boot camp prison that is contracted out by the State, any State or local contract facility, or other local or State correctional facility (including any juvenile facility).
After this paragraph, it specifically details what information is required, how and when it should be submitted, etc.
Here's the thing: Our government is refusing to enforce this law. Attorney General Loretta Lynch all but said that the collection of this data, as mandated by law, is a very low priority for her and that she will not push it.
Read on for more on this unbelievable development.
Lynch said the Justice Department does “encourage” local departments to maintain records on police shootings but that improving police-community relations is more important. She noted that the small size of the average police department could make record-keeping difficult.
“The statistics are important, but the real issues are: ‘what steps are we all taking to connect communities … with police and back with government?’” she said.
This is disturbing and equals the proverbial "two steps back" that we often reference (three steps forward, two steps back). The DOJ can walk and chew gum at the same damn time, but Attorney General Lynch suggests that enforcing this data collection would somehow impede her other priorities.
Attorney General Lynch: This is the law. It was hard-earned. Please enforce it.
Death in Custody Reporting Act