- The Los Angeles Police Department ranks first with 199 civilian deaths caused by police between 2013 and 2025.
- Two Texas cities make the top 10: Houston is third, while San Antonio is fifth.
- Phoenix, Arizona, and New York are second and fourth, respectively.
A new study reveals that the Los Angeles Police Department reports the most police violence.
The study, conducted by accident and injury lawyers Gammill Law, analyzed data from Mapping Police Violence, using the official police use of force collection programs, combined with The Gun Violence Archive and the Fatal Encounters data. Researchers ranked the top 100 largest US Police Departments by population coverage, based on the number of people killed by the police between 2013 and 2025.
The Los Angeles Police Department, California, ranks first with 199 deaths between 2013 and 2025, which is six times higher than the national average of 33 people killed by police. Los Angeles has seen an average of over 70,000 arrests per year during that same timeframe, 3.6 times higher than the national average of 19,000.
The Phoenix Police Department, Arizona, is second, with 173 killings. Phoenix PD registered an average of over 50,000 arrests per year in those 12 years.
The Houston Police Department is third with 128 fatalities. The Texan department has the second-highest violent crime rate in the top 10 at 10.8 per 1,000 residents.
The New York Police Department is fourth with 126 people killed by police, and the San Antonio Police Department, Texas, rounds out the top five at 106.
The Chicago Police Department, Illinois, is sixth with 105 people killed by police, while the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department comes in seventh place with 101 killings.
The Albuquerque Police Department, New Mexico, and the Jacksonville Police Department, Florida, share eighth place with 71 killings.
The top 10 closes with the Oklahoma City Police Department, with 67 people killed by police.
David Gammill, spokesperson for Gammill Law, commented on the findings, “These figures reveal a huge disparity among police departments. Out of 3,354 deaths recorded between 2013 and 2025, the majority occurred in just a few major urban police departments. While the national average is about 33 deaths per PD, cities like Los Angeles and Phoenix report numbers several times higher.
“These disparities may reflect larger populations and higher crime rates typically seen in urban areas. They could also be due to differences in policing strategies and policies among departments. Further investigation is needed to determine if policing practices, local socio-economic conditions, and community-police relationships affect the likelihood and frequency of fatal encounters.”
Sources: Mapping Police Violence