FBI Director: Law enforcement needs to gather data on use of deadly force
New London — The head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Thursday demanded that law enforcement officials across the country begin to gather data on the use of deadly force.
"Nobody in the United States has any idea whether black people or brown people or white people are being shot at increased rates, decreased rates or flat rates over the last three, five or 10 years," FBI Director James B. Comey said. "Nobody knows."
During a speech at the Coast Guard Academy, Comey echoed many of the same points he made during a gathering of police chiefs in San Diego earlier this week.
The absence of this deadly force data, he said, has created a "narrative ... that law enforcement is engaging in an epidemic of violence directed at black men."
"That's the narrative of the United States because those are the images we see. Those are the videos we see," Comey continued. "Videos of gut-wrenching misconduct, videos of possible misconduct, videos of perceived misconduct."
In recent months and years, videos of black men being fatally shot by police widely have been circulated, including the recent cellphone video recording of the killing of Keith Scott, a 43-year-old black man, in Charlotte last month.
Comey's speech was part of an ongoing lecture series that has brought top officials such as Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman to be appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and former Central Intelligence Agency Director George Tenet to speak to cadets and officer candidates at the academy.
Under the glass on his desk, Comey keeps a copy of the FBI's 1960 request to wiretap Martin Luther King Jr. The request is on the same part of his desk where each morning Comey puts a stack "thicker than his wrist" of wiretap applications to be submitted as part of the FBI's national security investigations. The 1960 request is the starting point for a curriculum focused on MLK Jr. at the FBI's training academy, he said.
Several times during his speech, Comey referred to "the chasm" between law enforcement and communities of color, "especially the black community."
He pointed to the FBI's effort to bring together civilians and law enforcement, the need for officers to "get out of their cars" and for the general public to face the problem, which is "most evident" in cities with the highest violent crime rates, and not "drive around" it.
Comey fears that the recent controversy around law enforcement "will deter great young people of all backgrounds from joining law enforcement."
During his speech, he addressed a subject that probably nobody in the room thought he would: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server. Comey recommended that charges not be brought against Clinton.
He said the FBI's investigation into Clinton was conducted by a group of its "very best" special agents, an "all-star team." He noted that "seven layers" of supervisors approved the decision, including, finally, himself.
He did acknowledged his decision to weigh in with a recommendation "was unprecedented," and that it would cause "a lot of ruckus." He said he did so to "give the American people a sense that this was done in a right way by the right people ... the FBI is honest, confident and independent and I very much wanted the American people to see that."
In addressing the cadets specifically, who are "all going to have security clearances," Comey said if they work for the FBI and use an "unclassified email system to communicate about things that were classified ... you would be in trouble in the FBI."
"You would be subject to a severe discipline process. You might lose your job. You might be suspended. You might lose your clearance. There would be significant consequences for that behavior, I am highly confident of that," he said.
But he was more than highly confident, he was "certain," that "you would not be prosecuted," he said, because he's personally "gone through every case in the last 50 years."
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