The number of people reported killed by police this year nears 1,000

Nearly 1,000 people have been reported killed by police in the United States in 2015, according to data compiled by independent sources. Should the trend continue, that number is likely to clear 1,000 before the end of November.

Eighty-six people were killed by officers in October, The Guardian‘s police violence database, “The Counted,” reports. The majority of those killed were male (95%), and 10 (12%) were unarmed. Twenty-two (26%) of these deaths occurred in California alone. Twelve of the people shot and killed by police last month exhibited signs of mental illness, per The Washington Post‘s police violence database.

The Guardian says that 14 of the people killed by police in October were black. Mapping Police Violence’s monthly report puts that number at 26, which is not inconsistent with The Guardian‘s findings, as the race of nearly half of the people reported killed by The Guardian is “unknown.” Whether 14 or 26, either number would be disproportionate to U.S. racial demographics as a whole, meaning that black people are more likely to be killed during a police encounter than their white counterparts.

Independent organizations like The Guardian, the Post, and Mapping Police Violence began tracking police-involved deaths in the U.S. because no such database exists. This absence became more glaring as the mainstream American media began increasing their coverage of how communities of color are policed in the wake of #BlackLivesMatter (and Black Lives Matter) activism.

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