Tyre Nicholes, an American citizen, was killed by law-enforcement officials this month leading to protests in several states of the United States. Positively saying, the concerned authority dismissed all five police officials who were responsible for the killing and disbanded the specialized police unit, known as the Scorpion Special Unit, to which they belonged. But this is not the only killing in the United States by the police. Thousands are also killed by law-enforcement officials in different countries each year. Many do not get even justice, even if law-enforcement officials intentionally kill in the name of arrests. Consequently, the killing of civilians by law-enforcement officials has become a cause of concern in many countries around the world.
Definitely, there are significant differences in the number of police killings across countries. Police killings are more in some countries but less in other countries. According to available sources, from 2016 to 2021, there were 6000 police killings each year in the Philippines on average. Among other countries, Brazil, Venezuela and El Salvador are some leading countries. The number of police killings was more than 5500 in Brazil in 2019 and more than 5000 in Venezuela in 2018. But several countries have zero and near zero police killings including Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, New Zealand and Norway. Also, all police killings are not illegal as a portion of them are caused by police shootings aiming to save their own lives while they encounter criminals.
When the lives of law-enforcement officials are at risk, police killings are legal in many countries, though there are different terms and conditions. But there are mounting criticisms about whether all the deaths caused at the time of arrest and detention in many countries including, but not limited to, the Philippines and El Salvador, where the fight against gangs including drug gangs is rendered an important cause of police killings, are actually for life-saving reasons. According to available sources, a significant portion of the killings at the time of arrest and detention is intentional and involves no life risks for law-enforcement officials. Definitely, many law-enforcement agency based, political and other causes work behind intentional police killings at the time of arrest.
Inadequate and ineffective laws, inadequate departmental measures and a lack of accountability of law-enforcement officials, or de facto impunity of law-enforcement officials, are important causes of police killings in many countries. In many cases, law enforcement agencies remain indifferent to police killings and do not take any strong departmental action against killings. Racial or other forms of discrimination, corruption in government, the usage of avoidable deadly force especially on protests and demonstrations, inadequate institutionalized training on the friendly behaviors of law enforcement officials towards civilians and the stress of the job are some other important causes. Political motivation also leads to significant intentional police killings in many countries. The political motivation behind killings mainly occurs in repressive countries.
It is pertinent to note that the police are playing very important roles across countries, by not only maintaining law and order but also helping citizens at the time of different troubles. Moreover, most police officials neither engage in the intentional killing of civilians nor order the killing of people rather they play their professional roles and responsibilities across countries. Consequently, for the intentional killing of citizens by a small number of police officials, the entire police force of any country is not to be blamed. Yet, it is desired that avoidable killings by law-enforcement officials, or killings without any actual life threatening reasons, are ended and those officials who are responsible for intentional killings are brought to justice across countries.
But effective policy based and other measures are also important to address the legal agency based and other causes of intentional killings. Here, effective regulatory measures with strengthened internal mechanisms of law-enforcement agencies may be helpful in many countries. Also, the development of administrative standards to reduce unnecessary killings is important. Training on maintaining human rights standards during arrest, the usage of reasonably necessary force and the development of people-friendly behaviors may be helpful. The avoidance of the unnecessary use of deadly force can save the lives of many. Political motivations behind police killings also need to be addressed. For this, the role of political leaders especially in repressive regimes is important.
