Law Enforcement–Associated ED Visits Steady from 2006 to 2012

Serious injuries and fatalities at the hands of law enforcement have gained increased public and media attention lately, raising important questions about race and class in the U.S. Without a public, national database of police-involved injuries, anecdotes and media reports have filled the void left by the absence of reliable data.

These authors used a nationally representative sample of approximately 20% of U.S. emergency department (ED) visits to determine trends in ED visits for law enforcement–associated injuries from 2006 to 2012. While the annual number of ED visits increased slightly, the number of injuries associated with law enforcement remained steady, with the incidence hovering around 40 per 100,000 ED visits. Injuries were more …