The FBI is set to start a pilot program to collect and study data on the use of force by police.
The database, known as the National Use of Force Data Collection, will launch early next year, the Justice Department said.
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The FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Marshals Service are expected to participate, though their inclusion will be voluntary.
“Accurate and comprehensive data on the use of force by law enforcement is essential to an informed and productive discussion about community-police relations,” Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a written statement.
“In the days ahead, the Department of Justice will continue to work alongside our local, state, tribal and federal partners to ensure that we put in place a system to collect data that is comprehensive, useful and responsive to the needs of the communities we serve.”
Speaking at a Georgetown University event Thursday night to discuss criminal and social justice, Lynch said she hopes the database will serve as a way to “prescribe the problem” between law enforcement and communities.
“We’re looking for ways to make it as public as possible, both for the general public and for people who do research,” Lynch added during the Georgetown event.
The new program is set to go beyond provisions laid out in the Death in Custody Reporting Act, which Congress passed in 2014. That law covers only fatal encounters civilians have with police or while in law enforcement custody, and is set to go into effect at the close of fiscal 2016. The new federal database will include both lethal and non-lethal force by police.
Public officials and activists have been pushing for a comprehensive database for years following a slew of high-profile deaths of black men by police.
