LAPD Use-Of-Force Report: 21 Deadly Shootings, Cases Still Relatively Rare

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com/AP) — Police officers in Los Angeles used force on members of the public nearly 2,000 times in 2015, including 21 who were fatally shot, according to an LAPD report released Tuesday.

The numbers were revealed in what was being billed as the most comprehensive data on use of force ever compiled by the Los Angeles Police Department.

The number of deadly fatal shootings by Los Angeles police last year outpaced the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, which had 14; the Houston Police Department, which had 12; and Chicago, which had eight people die from police shootings in
2015, according to the report presented to the Police Commission.

The report shows 35 percent of people shot at by officers between 2011 and 2015 were black, while African Americans make up 9 percent of the city's population.

In all, 38 out of 48 police shootings were cases in which people -- more than one-third of whom were mentally ill -- were hit, while the number of people considered to be mentally ill who were shot by police rose nearly 300 percent from the previous year, the report found.

Fourteen of the 38 people shot by police in 2015 "had an indication of mental illness," while half of all people that were shot were carrying a gun, according to the report.

Overall, however, department officials say the use of force by LAPD officers is still relatively rare: the 1,924 use-of-force cases in 2015 represented 0.13 percent of the 1.5 million recorded interactions between the public and the police department.

Some protesters briefly disrupted Tuesday's Police Commission meeting by chanting slogans referencing the fatal police shooting of 39-year-old Charly Keunang, who was known on Skid Row as "Africa."

The shooting, which was captured on cell phone video, sparked protests by activists who accused officers of escalating the situation and killing an unarmed man.

A small group of protesters also staged a Skid Row-area rally to mark the date.

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