The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) undercounts and does not properly monitor the use of force and excessive force by all its officers and it needs to improve its capabilities to do so, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report on Monday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th July, 2023) The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) undercounts and does not properly monitor the use of force and excessive force by all its officers and it needs to improve its capabilities to do so, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report on Monday.
"The agencies sometimes included multiple uses of force in a single report or reported them as a single incident - thereby undercounting DHS officers' actual uses of force," the report said. "Also, DHS hasn't developed a plan for how it will analyze use of force data."
The DHS requires the four agencies within the department that the GAO reviewed to submit data on uses of force, the report acknowledged.
However, "the data submitted to DHS undercount the frequency that officers used force against subjects," the GAO said.
Agencies sometimes submitted data to DHS that counted multiple reportable uses of force as a single incident and the department should therefore provide guidance on how agencies should submit data to it in order to enhance DHS's ability to oversee use of force activities across its agencies, the GAO recommended.
