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Statistics reveal number of Quad Cities officer-related shootings in last five years

According to the police departments here in the Quad Cities, the number of police-involved shootings vary.

The FBI reported in 2012 about 400 people were killed in justifiable homicides by law enforcement. That number has been steady over the last five years.

However, in a report done by the Washington Post, that number is not reliable because officials with the Justice Department keep no comprehensive database or record of police shootings. That allows the nation’s more than 17,000 law enforcement agencies to self-report officer-involved shootings as part of the FBI’s annual data on “justifiable homicides” by law enforcement.

According to the police departments here in the Quad Cities, the numbers vary.

In Moline and in Bettendorf, there haven't been any officer involved shootings in the last five years. In Rock Island, there have only been two. In Davenport, there have been six and two of them have been in the past two months.

Davenport's Assistant Chief of Police, Don Schaeffer, said he believes the increase in officer-related shootings have a lot to do with the huge cuts in federal spending for the mental health in the U.S. He said officers are now faced with more mental health patients on the streets these days, putting them in situations where they're forced to make life or death decisions.

Schaeffer also adds that Davenport Police train constantly on how to handle situations with the mentally ill, and officers always exhaust all other options before resorting to lethal force.

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