Civil and Human Rights Coalition Applauds Passage of Death in Custody Reporting Act

WASHINGTON — Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, issued the following statement after Congress passed the Death in Custody Reporting Act, which requires states to report to the Department of Justice how many individuals die each year in police custody or during the course of an arrest:

“Passage of the Death in Custody Reporting Act is a welcome step forward in providing the information necessary to reform our law enforcement practices to prevent more needless deaths.

Estimates suggest that each year, more than 1,000 people die in custody of law enforcement but we have no standardized collection process to know concretely who these men and women are, how they died, and what could have prevented their deaths.

With the national consciousness focused on the sheer number of unarmed people of color who have died in police interactions, this bill will help us determine the scope of the problem, partner with law enforcement, and hold our institutions accountable for needless deaths.

We applaud Congressman Bobby Scott for his longtime stewardship of this bill and his colleagues in the House and Senate for passing it.”

Wade Henderson is the president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its 200-plus member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org.

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