I completely agree. Case in point, look at the front pages two most prominent examples of independent tracking of police shootings:<p>The Guardian&#x27;s &quot;The Counted&quot; reports &quot;891 people killed this year [by police in the U.S.] - <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theguardian.com&#x2F;us-news&#x2F;ng-interactive&#x2F;2015&#x2F;jun&#x2F;01&#x2F;the-counted-police-killings-us-database" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theguardian.com&#x2F;us-news&#x2F;ng-interactive&#x2F;2015&#x2F;jun&#x2F;0...</a><p>The Washington Post reports: &quot;758 people shot dead by police this year&quot; - <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.washingtonpost.com&#x2F;graphics&#x2F;national&#x2F;police-shootings&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.washingtonpost.com&#x2F;graphics&#x2F;national&#x2F;police-shoot...</a><p>The disparity is huge, but both sources could (and likely are, to the best of their ability) be reporting the truth. But they both have different opinions on what part of the issue should be prioritized.<p>I believe the WaPo has chosen its limited methodology (which would exclude Freddie Gray, among others) for an understandable reason: police shootings are hard enough to classify, nevermind all police killings. Read the Guardian&#x27;s methodology to see the pitfalls of their own approach: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theguardian.com&#x2F;us-news&#x2F;ng-interactive&#x2F;2015&#x2F;jun&#x2F;01&#x2F;about-the-counted" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theguardian.com&#x2F;us-news&#x2F;ng-interactive&#x2F;2015&#x2F;jun&#x2F;0...</a><p>The Dallas PD is one of the few agencies that is actually publishing their officer-involved-incidents in a systematic, machine-readable way [1]...but if you check their official homepage and read a few of the narrative documents [2], you&#x27;ll be able to see why things aren&#x27;t cut and dry...and that how you choose to count things has a very strong impact on the numbers you end up with.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.dallasopendata.com&#x2F;api&#x2F;views&#x2F;4gmt-jyx2?accessType=DOWNLOAD" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.dallasopendata.com&#x2F;api&#x2F;views&#x2F;4gmt-jyx2?accessTyp...</a><p>[2] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.dallaspolice.net&#x2F;ois&#x2F;ois.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.dallaspolice.net&#x2F;ois&#x2F;ois.html</a>