Special Report
States Where the Police Kill the Most People per Capita
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It’s happened many times. A high-profile killing by law enforcement officials of an unarmed suspect, disproportionately likely to be African-American, leads to public outcry. Then the news cycle moves on, and little seems to have changed.
We saw this after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin killed an unarmed Black suspect, George Floyd, on May 25, 2020. The intensity and sheer number of Black Lives Matter and related protests around the country led then-presidential-candidate Joe Biden to declare Floyd’s death “one of those great inflection points in American history.”
Unfortunately, the pace at which police have killed suspects has remained unchecked since then. At least 429 people in the U.S. had been killed by police officers this year as of the end of May — 28% of them African-American, despite the fact that Blacks make up only 13.4% of the total population. (These are the worst cities for Black Americans.)
Within 24 hours of the April 24 guilty verdicts against Chauvin — for second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter — police officers fatally gunned down six more suspects, including a 16-year-old girl in Cincinnati and two men in separate incidents in San Antonio. (Here are the cities where police shoot the most people.)
Click here to see the states where the police kill the most people per capita.
The number of police killings, both in absolute terms and on a per capita basis, varies widely from one state to the next. Massachusetts, for example, has one of the lowest rates of officer-involved fatalities in the nation, while Oklahoma has one of the highest. Interestingly, considering the bad press it gets in this regard, Minnesota ranks in 39th place for most per capita police killings.
To determine the states with the most killings by police departments, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed data from Mapping Police Violence, a research collaborative that collects data on police killings across the nation from the country’s three largest comprehensive and impartial crowdsourced databases. Data was accessed on May, 26, 2021 and includes all police department killings between the beginning of 2013 and May 23 of this year. Police killings per 100,000 were calculated using 2019 population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.
50. Rhode Island
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 0.66 (total: 7)
> Worst year police killings: 2016
> Worst city for police killings Providence (total: 3)
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49. Massachusetts
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 0.94 (total: 65)
> Worst year police killings: 2013
> Worst city for police killings Boston (total: 10)
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48. New York
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 0.96 (total: 186)
> Worst year police killings: 2019
> Worst city for police killings New York (total: 31)
47. Connecticut
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 1.21 (total: 43)
> Worst year police killings: 2013
> Worst city for police killings Hartford (total: 5)
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46. New Jersey
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 1.29 (total: 115)
> Worst year police killings: 2015
> Worst city for police killings Newark (total: 14)
45. Michigan
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 1.47 (total: 147)
> Worst year police killings: 2018
> Worst city for police killings Detroit (total: 28)
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44. Pennsylvania
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 1.56 (total: 200)
> Worst year police killings: 2013
> Worst city for police killings Philadelphia (total: 42)
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43. New Hampshire
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 1.62 (total: 22)
> Worst year police killings: 2015
> Worst city for police killings Manchester (total: 3)
42. Illinois
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 1.65 (total: 209)
> Worst year police killings: 2014
> Worst city for police killings Chicago (total: 88)
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41. Iowa
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 1.68 (total: 53)
> Worst year police killings: 2018
> Worst city for police killings Des Moines (total: 7)
40. Virginia
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 1.75 (total: 149)
> Worst year police killings: 2017
> Worst city for police killings Virginia Beach (total: 11)
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39. Minnesota
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 1.79 (total: 101)
> Worst year police killings: 2015
> Worst city for police killings St. Paul (total: 12)
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38. Vermont
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 2.08 (total: 13)
> Worst year police killings: 2019
> Worst city for police killings Burlington (total: 4)
37. North Dakota
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 2.10 (total: 16)
> Worst year police killings: 2018
> Worst city for police killings Fort Totten (total: 2)
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36. Ohio
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 2.15 (total: 251)
> Worst year police killings: 2018
> Worst city for police killings Columbus (total: 46)
35. Wisconsin
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 2.27 (total: 132)
> Worst year police killings: 2017
> Worst city for police killings Milwaukee (total: 22)
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34. Nebraska
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 2.27 (total: 44)
> Worst year police killings: 2015
> Worst city for police killings Omaha (total: 18)
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33. Indiana
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 2.36 (total: 159)
> Worst year police killings: 2020
> Worst city for police killings Indianapolis (total: 32)
32. North Carolina
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 2.37 (total: 249)
> Worst year police killings: 2016
> Worst city for police killings Charlotte (total: 25)
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31. Delaware
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 2.46 (total: 24)
> Worst year police killings: 2017
> Worst city for police killings Wilmington (total: 7)
30. Maryland
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 2.55 (total: 154)
> Worst year police killings: 2013
> Worst city for police killings Baltimore (total: 39)
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29. South Carolina
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 2.68 (total: 138)
> Worst year police killings: 2015
> Worst city for police killings Greenville (total: 8)
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28. Maine
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 2.75 (total: 37)
> Worst year police killings: 2017
> Worst city for police killings Old Town (total: 3)
27. Kansas
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 2.85 (total: 83)
> Worst year police killings: 2014
> Worst city for police killings Wichita (total: 18)
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26. Texas
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 2.91 (total: 845)
> Worst year police killings: 2015
> Worst city for police killings Houston (total: 116)
25. Hawaii
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 2.97 (total: 42)
> Worst year police killings: 2018
> Worst city for police killings Honolulu (total: 14)
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24. Georgia
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 3.04 (total: 323)
> Worst year police killings: 2018
> Worst city for police killings Atlanta (total: 30)
23. Florida
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 3.07 (total: 660)
> Worst year police killings: 2020
> Worst city for police killings Miami (total: 49)
22. Utah
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 3.15 (total: 101)
> Worst year police killings: 2014
> Worst city for police killings Salt Lake City (total: 22)
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21. Tennessee
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 3.19 (total: 218)
> Worst year police killings: 2019
> Worst city for police killings Memphis (total: 30)
20. Oregon
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 3.22 (total: 136)
> Worst year police killings: 2018
> Worst city for police killings Portland (total: 21)
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19. South Dakota
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 3.28 (total: 29)
> Worst year police killings: 2016
> Worst city for police killings Rapid City (total: 9)
18. Kentucky
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 3.29 (total: 147)
> Worst year police killings: 2018
> Worst city for police killings Louisville (total: 32)
17. Washington
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 3.40 (total: 259)
> Worst year police killings: 2019
> Worst city for police killings Seattle (total: 29)
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16. Idaho
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 3.47 (total: 62)
> Worst year police killings: 2018
> Worst city for police killings Boise (total: 8)
15. Alabama
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 3.53 (total: 173)
> Worst year police killings: 2016
> Worst city for police killings Birmingham (total: 19)
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14. California
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 3.57 (total: 1409)
> Worst year police killings: 2015
> Worst city for police killings Los Angeles (total: 127)
13. Louisiana
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 3.85 (total: 179)
> Worst year police killings: 2015
> Worst city for police killings Baton Rouge (total: 18)
12. Missouri
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 3.89 (total: 239)
> Worst year police killings: 2017
> Worst city for police killings St. Louis (total: 50)
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11. Arkansas
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 4.08 (total: 123)
> Worst year police killings: 2018
> Worst city for police killings Little Rock (total: 16)
10. Wyoming
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 4.15 (total: 24)
> Worst year police killings: 2015
> Worst city for police killings Casper (total: 8)
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9. Mississippi
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 4.23 (total: 126)
> Worst year police killings: 2019
> Worst city for police killings Gulfport (total: 10)
8. West Virginia
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 4.41 (total: 79)
> Worst year police killings: 2019
> Worst city for police killings Charleston (total: 6)
7. Nevada
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 4.87 (total: 150)
> Worst year police killings: 2020
> Worst city for police killings Las Vegas (total: 66)
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6. Colorado
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 4.98 (total: 287)
> Worst year police killings: 2018
> Worst city for police killings Denver (total: 52)
5. Montana
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 5.05 (total: 54)
> Worst year police killings: 2020
> Worst city for police killings Billings (total: 15)
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4. Arizona
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 5.63 (total: 410)
> Worst year police killings: 2018
> Worst city for police killings Phoenix (total: 132)
3. Oklahoma
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 6.42 (total: 254)
> Worst year police killings: 2015
> Worst city for police killings Oklahoma City (total: 56)
2. Alaska
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 7.11 (total: 52)
> Worst year police killings: 2020
> Worst city for police killings Anchorage (total: 13)
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1. New Mexico
> Police killings per 100,000 people since 2013: 8.16 (total: 171)
> Worst year police killings: 2016
> Worst city for police killings Albuquerque (total: 59)
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