--- title: Police Shootings: Senators Introduce Bill to Increase Accountability description: Two Democratic senators announced legislation requiring all states to report all shootings by police officers to the Justice Department. canonical: https://time.com/3905617/senate-bill-police-accountability/ author: Jacob Koffler article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-02T19:09:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:41:43.950Z article:section: Politics og:title: Senators Introduce Bill to Track Police Shootings og:description: Two senators announced legislation requiring all states to report shootings by police officers to the Justice Department og:url: https://time.com/3905617/senate-bill-police-accountability/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Senators Introduce Bill to Track Police Shootings twitter:description: Two senators announced legislation requiring all states to report shootings by police officers to the Justice Department twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Senators Introduce Bill to Track Police Shootings > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Know Right Now: Baltimore Requests DOJ Probe [Watch (HLS stream): Know Right Now: Baltimore Requests DOJ Probe](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/2rrBiijd.m3u8) (1:01)  _Published 2015-04-28. Baltimore is investigating police practices after the death of Freddie Gray in Police Custody_ by [Jacob Koffler](https://time.com/author/jacob-koffler/) ## Jacob Koffler Jun 2, 2015 7:09 PM UTC by [Jacob Koffler](https://time.com/author/jacob-koffler/) ## Jacob Koffler Jun 2, 2015 7:09 PM UTC A new bill aims to increase police accountability by [requiring states to report all shootings by police officers ](http://www.boxer.senate.gov/press/release/boxer-booker-introduce-bill-to-bring-transparency-and-accountability-to-police-departments-nationwide/)to the Justice Department. The bill, introduced Tuesday by two Democratic senators, Barbara Boxer of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey, would cover both fatal and non-fatal shootings by police, as well as other instances of police using deadly force, the senators announced. The legislation comes on the heels of unrest in several cities across the country in response to what protesters see as excessive police force and a lack of police accountability in the justice system, most recently in Baltimore after Freddie Gray died of an injury sustained in police custody. Under the legislation, states would be required to report the age, gender and race of any person seriously injured or killed by police, as well as whether the person was armed. Civil rights activists have long pointed to a lack of accurate or comprehensive data on how many people are killed annually by police officers in the U.S. Both the [_Post_](http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/fatal-police-shootings-in-2015-approaching-400-nationwide/2015/05/30/d322256a-058e-11e5-a428-c984eb077d4e%5Fstory.html) and [_The Guardian_](http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/01/black-americans-killed-by-police-analysis)have recently announced projects that aim to tally all deaths at the hands of American police. Last week, the _Post_ reported that at least 385 people have been shot and killed by police nationwide since the beginning of this year. If the trend continues, the U.S. will have more than double the number of fatal police shootings this year compared to the number the federal government has reported as the yearly average, based on limited self-reported data. “Without reliable data it’s difficult to hold people accountable or create effective policies that change the status quo,” Booker said in a statement. Boxer, in a [statement](http://www.boxer.senate.gov/press/release/boxer-booker-introduce-bill-to-bring-transparency-and-accountability-to-police-departments-nationwide/) on her website, said the data the FBI currently collects is not sufficient. “Too many members of the public and police officers are being killed, and we don’t have reliable data to track these tragic incidents,” Boxer said in the statement. “This bill will ensure that we know the full extent of the problem so we can save lives on all sides.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3905617/senate-bill-police-accountability/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3905617/senate-bill-police-accountability/"},"headline":"Senators Introduce Bill to Track Police Shootings","datePublished":"2015-06-02T19:09:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:41:43.950Z","description":"\"Without reliable data it's difficult to hold people accountable\"","url":"https://time.com/3905617/senate-bill-police-accountability/","keywords":["Congress","Cory Booker","Ferguson"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jacob Koffler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jacob-koffler/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3905617/senate-bill-police-accountability/","name":"Senators Introduce Bill to Track Police Shootings"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Know Right Now: Baltimore Requests DOJ Probe","description":"Baltimore is investigating police practices after the death of Freddie Gray in Police Custody","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/2rrBiijd/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-04-28T15:33:58.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/2rrBiijd.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3905617/senate-bill-police-accountability/","duration":"PT1M1S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3905617/senate-bill-police-accountability/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```