A memorial for Mike Brown on Canfield Drive in Ferguson, Missouri
photo: Wikimedia Commons

August 9 marks the two year anniversary of Mike Brown's death. Former Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson fatally shot the 18-year-old while he walked down Canfield Drive with a friend. His bullet-riddled decaying body laid in the street for four hours — and sparked a revolution for justice.

Now, after countless police killings, marches, and pushes for legislative reform, the Department of Justice is finally taking a step to curb state-sanctioned violence. On August 4, the Justice Department announced a new program to keep track of "arrest-related deaths," which includes shootings, suicides, physical force, and tasers. 

It is the first comprehensive federal database to tally the number of Americans who die in police custody.

Police officers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in riot gear
photo: Wikimedia Commons

The Department of Justice (DOJ) said the new database will increase transparency around police killings on the state and federal level.

"Accurate and comprehensive accounting of deaths that occur during the process of arrest is critical for law enforcement agencies to demonstrate responsiveness to the citizens and communities they serve," the DOJ wrote in a note for the Federal Register.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) will use an arrest-related deaths database to oversee the project. The new federal program will require all 19,450 law enforcement offices to report all deaths. For the first year, they will submit information once. Next year, the BJS will move to a quarterly system, which will force all American police departments to report deaths at the end of each quarter.

Medical examiners and coroners will also have to participate. They will receive federal forms to corroborate or refute the details submitted by police departments.

People Killed by Police by Race Since 2015 | Graphiq

The DOJ has a specific plan for enforcing the rule as well. Congress passed the Death in Custody Reporting Act in 2013. The law states that police departments must report the deaths of those killed in custody or risk losing 10% of federal funding. 

This is the third time the BJS has attempted to create a national database. Both times were unsuccessful for a number of reasons, including low and inaccurate reports, according to The Independent. The last database shuttered in April 2014, four months before Brown's death. This time, however, the BJS is confident the database will work.

The BJS will rely on national media coverage of police shootings, The Washington Post and The Guardian's individual databases, and department reporting to ensure comprehensive coverage.

Over the next two months, the Department of Justice will invite comments on how to make the program more effective.

Police officers have killed 651 people in 2016.

Main Image: Flickr/Fibonacci Blue/2.0