Widespread outrage at police violence, fatal shootings, and deaths in police custody created the current international protest movements and calls to defund the police. However, as shown in previous chapters, there is a long history to protests against police violence, and there are multiple movements to change policing globally which draw on localised contexts. Police violence is experienced at a local level, however, it has global reach and is pervasive to the institution. It directly costs the lives of tens of thousands of people annually – and many more if we include the numbers of forced disappearances – and leaves incalculable numbers of people with permanent injuries and disabilities. The victims are overwhelmingly from the most marginalised communities whether defined by race, religion, class, Indigeneity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, citizenship or immigration status, and their various and compounding intersections.

One of the main causes of death, disability, and injury for people deprived of their liberty are the acts of violence and use of force by police and other state agents. This chapter sets out what we know about the nature and context of police violence, shootings, and deaths in police custody – including overt violence and the violence of neglect – and it attempts to do so with reference to contexts of both the global north and south. It considers some of the wider drivers which are international but impact on domestic policing such as expanded militarisation, the impact of the war on drugs and the intersection of policing with security forces, border control, and other law enforcement bodies.

Police killings and deaths in police custody

A defining feature of policing is state-sanctioned legitimacy for the use of force and violence, including lethal violence, against citizens. The importance of police discretion was discussed previously in Chapter 3. Police discretion extends to the use and intensity of violence. Notwithstanding the fundamental importance of a state-sanctioned decision to end someone’s life or seriously maim them, it is difficult to get a handle on the overall size of the problem of police violence, killings, or police custodial deaths.