Police in the United States kill far more people than in other wealthy nations. Campaign Zero's Mapping Police Violence counted 1,314 people killed by police in 2025, the first decline in six years. Black people were 2.6 times as likely as white people to be killed by police that year, and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander people faced an even higher rate.
The pattern has deep roots. Early Southern policing grew partly out of slave patrols, and police enforced Black Codes and Jim Crow laws. Killings like George Floyd's in Minneapolis in 2020 drew global protest, but the system that produces them stays largely intact.
Accountability is rare by design. Qualified immunity shields officers from many civil lawsuits, union contracts can slow discipline, and criminal charges against officers are uncommon. That is why many organizers focus on changing laws, budgets and the role of police, not only on punishing individual officers.