Texas reports disproportionate number of arrest-related deaths

I was interested to see a new report (pdf) out from the Bureau of Justice Statistics on arrest-related deaths, revealing that 696 Texans died while being arrested from 2003-2009. Here are a few highlights from the summary:

• A total of 4,813 deaths were reported to the Arrest-Related Deaths program from January 2003 through December 2009.
• Of reported arrest-related deaths, 61% (2,931) were classified as homicides by law enforcement personnel, 11% (541) were suicides, 11% (525) were due to intoxication, 6% (272) were accidental injuries, and 5% (244) were attributed to natural causes.
• State and local law enforcement agencies employing 100 or more full-time sworn personnel accounted for 75% of the 4,813 arrest-related deaths reported during 2003-2009.
• Among reported arrest-related deaths, 42% of persons were white, 32% were black, and 20% were Hispanic.

So Texas accounted for 14.5% of arrest-related deaths, while comprising a little over 8% of the US population. That said, it's not simply that Texas cops are more trigger happy: Just 44% of arrest related deaths in Texas were homicides by police (308) compared to 61% nationally, while suicides and intoxication-related deaths made up a greater proportion than in other states for reasons not articulated in the report.

Last year 39 Texas law-enforcement agencies reported an arrest-related death, a seven-year low down from 53 in 2007.

To be clear, these data are neither comprehensive nor rock-solid due to different methodologies of identifying and reporting arrest-related deaths among the states. Texas' numbers may appear inflated because many states submit incomplete data - three (Georgia, Maryland, and Montana) submitted none at all over the period - while Texas and California both mandate data collection under state law. Also, the report does not include "deaths that occurred in a jail or other long-term holding facility and deaths that occurred in the custody of federal law enforcement officers."