Underreporting of Homicides by Police in the United States, 1976-2013

To identify sources of error in estimates of the number of homicides committed by police officers in the United States, we examined data from the Supplementary Homicide Report (SHR) and the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) between 1976 and 2013. Coverage and nonresponse errors were the primary reasons for underreporting in the SHR, with some agencies not participating or failing to submit some monthly reports. Measurement errors were the primary source of underreporting in the NVSS. If police involvement was not mentioned on death certificate, the death was misclassified as a civilian homicide.