Police in this county killed the most people per capita this year
Bakersfield, California. In the last decade, there have been 54 shootings by police in Kern County’s two largest law enforcement agencies—the Bakersfield police department and the Kern County sheriff’s office. Richard Thornton / Shutterstock.com
Police in Kern County, California, have killed 13 people this year, making officers there more deadly on a per capita basis than in any other U.S. county in 2015.
This year, police in Kern County have killed 1.5 people per 100,000 residents, the Guardian reports. Next most deadly are officers in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, who killed 1.3 people per 100,000 residents, and in San Bernardino County, California, who killed one person per 100,000 residents.
The statistics were calculated before police in San Bernardino County killed two suspects in the mass shooting on Wednesday that left at least 14 people dead. The suspects were involved in a shootout with police, according to this New York Times article.
In the last decade, there have been 54 shootings by police in Kern County’s two largest law enforcement agencies—the Bakersfield police department and the Kern County sheriff’s office. Forty-nine were ruled justified by panels of senior officers in the departments. Four others were apparently ruled justified, but records could not be found, and an inquiry is pending in the fifth.
The story notes that Bakersfield’s population is 46 percent Hispanic, 38 percent white and 8 percent African American. Its police department is 74 percent white, 21 percent Hispanic and less than 5 percent African American.
A Guardian chart lists the counties with the most fatal shootings on a per capita basis, After Kern County, Oklahoma County and San Bernardino County they are:
• Clark County, Nevada
• Santa Clara County, California
• Maricopa County, Arizona
• Miami-Dade County, Florida
• Dallas County, Texas
• Riverside County, California
• Tarrant County, Texas
• Los Angeles County, California
• Harris County, Texas
• San Diego County, California
• Cook County, Illinois
The data is based on counties with five or more officer-involved killings.
Hat tip to the Marshall Project.
Updated at 6:30 a.m. to include mention of the deaths of two mass-shooting suspects in San Bernardino County on Wednesday.
