Can Foreign Experience Inform U.S. Policy on Killings of and by Police

"Every modern state has police agencies to enforce laws and resolve disputes. This article surveys available statistics on police use of deadly force in an effort to put the data in the United States in comparative perspective. Specifically, this article provides a brief survey of police killings in five nations and then does a more sustained analysis of killings by and of police in Germany and the United Kingdom. To what extent is the United States unique in the character and rate of killing as a byproduct of urban policing? What can the experience of other nations tell us about whether the dangers confronting police require their use of lethal force and what alternative countermeasures exist to keep police safe? The material in this article will appear as a chapter in a forthcoming book on police use of lethal force in the United States."