Annual average number of deaths by police shooting per million inhabitants (1996–2006)
Credit: Knutssonand Nore´e
WASHINGTON — Matthew Ajibade, Roberto Ornelas, and Garrett Gagne: These were the first three people killed by American police this year. Since their deaths at the hands of police on Jan. 1, police have killed another 687 people, averaging three daily, according to The Guardian’s “The Counted,” currently the most comprehensive database of killings by U.S. police.
This stands in sharp contrast to police in Norway. They fired guns twice last year. And Norwegian police haven’t killed anyone since 2006, and that police-related fatality was the only one that year.
Of the 34 countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, an economic organization committed to democracy and a market economy, Norway is one of just four countries which routinely deploy unarmed police. Norwegian police have access to firearms, which are locked in patrol cars, but they cannot use […]
I read another peer-reviewed scientific article recently that showed that many police units only undergo a qualification process of about 2 months whereas the norm in Scandinavian countries was about 6 months at the least; with much of it aimed at prevention of armed conflict by using psychological means, not brute force.