An Assessment of Surveillance and Administrative Data for Law Enforcement-Related Injuries

This dissertation involves three studies that assess law enforcement related injuries and fatalities in the United States. The first study takes advantage of injury surveillance data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to assess injuries and deaths caused by law enforcement. The second project is an analysis of two probabilistically linked administrative databases that included two medically treated patient groups who had either been injured or killed by law enforcement or by civilians in Illinois. The third project is an analysis of the cause, severity, and workers’ compensation pay out among Illinois law enforcement personnel. The first study found that legal intervention fatality rates increased over time. Black men had much higher injury and fatality rates than other racial groups. American Indian/ Alaskan Natives were found to have much higher fatality rates than the national average. One recommendation is to create a national code of conduct manual for civilians that can be used as a directive for what to do when interacting with police officers. The second study found that most civilian assaults occurred before the age of 35 but legal interventions continued to age 44. Legal intervention injuries had more severe outcomes such as longer hospital stays, higher severity scoring, and more comorbid and psychiatric conditions than in those injured by civilian assaults. Injuries caused by legal interventions may not be due to interactions between law enforcement and civilians during the arrest process. The third study found that the causes of occupational injuries included assault, falls, motor vehicle accidents, and overexertion, among other causes. Extremities account for a high proportion of body parts affected by injury among officers. Additionally, correctional officers represented 45% of all disputed claims filed over the study period, and state police had a significantly higher proportion of officers who represented themselves. State police had some of the lowest compensation payouts and a much wider range of compensation. There lies a disparity in disputed claims among correctional officers that is not well understood, injury and fatality research on police should be assessed by department type, and safety recommendations should vary by department.