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https://www.nbcnews.com/news/invest...fbi-us-marshals-shroud-shootings-s-rcna123818
Defying presidents and Congress, the ATF, DEA, FBI and U.S. marshals shroud their shootings in secrecy
Despite nearly 30 years of demands for transparency, the DOJ's law enforcement agencies release little data about whom they shoot, why and when, and they rarely use body cameras.
Had they been local police shootings, they might have generated public demands to release body camera video and use-of-force investigation reports. But they were federal operations, conducted by agents and task forces with four federal law enforcement agencies — the FBI, the ATF, the DEA and the U.S. Marshals Service — in which the use of force remains largely a black box, free from public scrutiny.
Congress and a string of presidents for nearly 30 years have been pushing federal law enforcement to reform and become more transparent. But those four agencies overseen by the Justice Department, among the most prestigious in the country, have been slow to adopt reforms long embraced by big-city police departments, such as the use of body cameras and the release of comprehensive use-of-force data.
To understand how often federal officers and their task forces use deadly force, NBC News built a database of shootings that involved officers working for or with the ATF, the DEA, the FBI and the Marshals Service by reviewing five years’ worth of public documents, news releases, lawsuits and news reports.
From 2018 to 2022, 223 people were shot by an on-duty federal officer, a member of a federal task force or a local officer participating in an operation with federal agents, according to an NBC News analysis. A total of 151 were killed, an average of 30 per year.
Examinations of the incidents revealed that the Justice Department’s law enforcement agencies continue to use tactics that many big-city police departments now shun. They have fired at moving cars and shot people within seconds of encounters — without taking steps to de-escalate the situations.
Some federal law enforcement practices have generated disputes with local police chiefs, in addition to civil rights leaders, who question why federal officers aren’t held to the same standards as state and city law enforcement officers.
Although the Justice Department has forced local law enforcement, like the Baltimore and Los Angeles police departments, to reform, its own agencies are legally exempt from similar oversight. The use-of-force data the Justice Department agencies publish is so limited that it is hard to determine who was shot, why, when and by whom.
Defying presidents and Congress, the ATF, DEA, FBI and U.S. marshals shroud their shootings in secrecy
Despite nearly 30 years of demands for transparency, the DOJ's law enforcement agencies release little data about whom they shoot, why and when, and they rarely use body cameras.
Had they been local police shootings, they might have generated public demands to release body camera video and use-of-force investigation reports. But they were federal operations, conducted by agents and task forces with four federal law enforcement agencies — the FBI, the ATF, the DEA and the U.S. Marshals Service — in which the use of force remains largely a black box, free from public scrutiny.
Congress and a string of presidents for nearly 30 years have been pushing federal law enforcement to reform and become more transparent. But those four agencies overseen by the Justice Department, among the most prestigious in the country, have been slow to adopt reforms long embraced by big-city police departments, such as the use of body cameras and the release of comprehensive use-of-force data.
To understand how often federal officers and their task forces use deadly force, NBC News built a database of shootings that involved officers working for or with the ATF, the DEA, the FBI and the Marshals Service by reviewing five years’ worth of public documents, news releases, lawsuits and news reports.
From 2018 to 2022, 223 people were shot by an on-duty federal officer, a member of a federal task force or a local officer participating in an operation with federal agents, according to an NBC News analysis. A total of 151 were killed, an average of 30 per year.
Examinations of the incidents revealed that the Justice Department’s law enforcement agencies continue to use tactics that many big-city police departments now shun. They have fired at moving cars and shot people within seconds of encounters — without taking steps to de-escalate the situations.
Some federal law enforcement practices have generated disputes with local police chiefs, in addition to civil rights leaders, who question why federal officers aren’t held to the same standards as state and city law enforcement officers.
Although the Justice Department has forced local law enforcement, like the Baltimore and Los Angeles police departments, to reform, its own agencies are legally exempt from similar oversight. The use-of-force data the Justice Department agencies publish is so limited that it is hard to determine who was shot, why, when and by whom.
