Address overpolicing and police violence through accountability to the federal government and required data collection and reporting—and reallocate unnecessary funding for law enforcement agencies to community needs.

The over-policing and criminalization of Black people and the use of excessive police force are legacies of slavery and white supremacy. In the United States, there are approximately 10.5 million arrests per year—equivalent to one every three seconds—and each encounter brings with it the risk of violence being perpetrated against community members. Real accountability in policing is long overdue. Critical steps the federal government must take toward necessary transformational change include requiring department accountability as a condition of law enforcement grants; collecting data about police misconduct and excessive force disaggregated by demographic categories; downsizing investments in law enforcement agencies; and increasing investments in community needs, such as homelessness, poverty, mental illness, and substance use.

Explore our policing related resources below.

Resource Site

Arrest Trends

Interactive data tool on policing trends at the national and local levels

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Publication

Gatekeepers

The Role of Police in Ending Mass Incarceration

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State Publications

What Policing Costs: A Look at Spending in America’s Biggest Cities

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An arrest is made every

3 seconds
1 in 3

Americans will have experienced arrest by age 23. The rate among young Black men is almost

1 in 2
In 2016, an estimated
10,662,252
of arrests were made in the United States for all offenses.^[]Rebecca Neusteter and Megan O’Toole, Every Three Seconds: Unlocking Police Data on Arrests (New York: Vera Institute of Justice, 2019).
Arrests of women increased by

83%

from 1980 to 2014.^[]Rebecca Neusteter and Megan O’Toole, Every Three Seconds: Unlocking Police Data on Arrests (New York: Vera Institute of Justice, 2019).

From The Blog

Getting Rid of Private Prisons Isn’t Enough

Vera has committed to a 10-year strategy to end the incarceration of girls. To accomplish this by 2029, we have created a three-pronged approach: Target the top incarcerators. Together, the top eight states—California, Florida, Indiana, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas—account for more than 50 percent of the nation’s incarceration ...

News

Logan Schmidt

January 27, 2020

News

Data-Backed Outrage: Police Violence by the Numbers

Over the past decade, the widespread use of cell phone cameras and social media has brought more public consciousness to the cold reality of police brutality, including the killings of unarmed Black men, women, and children. The tragedies of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd this year ignited overdue awareness, outrage, and calls to action from a wid ...

News

Logan Schmidt
Micah Haskell-Hoehl

July 07, 2020

News

Protecting Black Lives: The Crisis of American Policing

The police make 10.5 million arrests a year, mostly for minor offenses. In fact, less than 5 percent were for incidents that involved serious violence. Every police encounter threatens escalation, injury, and death. Real accountability in policing is long overdue. Vera is committed to dismantling the current culture of policing and working toward s ...

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