NBC 7 Alex Presha reports on the most comprehensive report about police shootings in San Diego.
The San Diego County District Attorney’s Office released the most comprehensive officer-involved shooting report in San Diego's history.
The study focuses on details of officer-involved shootings over the last 25 years -- everything from where these shootings happened to the time of day they occurred.
Read the full report here.
The data reveals trends that follow racial lines, and shows that many shootings involve drugs or mental health.
The study will very likely raise questions, but the goal from the DA's perspective is transparency.
According to the study, 451 people were involved in violent confrontations with police in San Diego County between 1993 and 2017, which makes for an average of about 18 per year.
These shootings are fatal a little more than half the time, and the majority of them involve the San Diego Police Department. The San Diego County Sheriff's Department comes in second with 99 of these incidents.
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The study shows that law enforcement officers have been killed in about 12 percent of the shootings studied.
One alarming statistic, that 79 percent of officer-involved shootings involve people who have drugs in their system or who have mental health issues. This is why the DA’s office said it called for two new resources at the beginning of the year -- Crisis Intervention and De-escalation Training for officers and a 911 Mental Health Checklist card.
As far as a breakdown of the shootings along racial lines, the study says that 40 percent involve a white officer and a person of color.
“Well, we have to continue to address the issue of diversity on the police force, having the police force look like the community it represents so that there is someone that looks like you and has had your experiences in representing you in justice,” District Attorney Summer Stephan said.
