COLUMBUS, Ohio — Phil Stinson is a former police officer and lawyer. Now, he is a professor of criminal justice at Bowling Green State University.
He can tap into all of that knowledge as he studies crimes committed by law enforcement officers. He’s been focused on that since about 2005. With the help of dozens of students over the years, he has compiled an online database breaking down those charges and crimes and tracking the cases.
“I scratch my head every day wondering why there aren’t more databases that are tracking this type of data,” he said. “The federal government just can’t simply answer the question, for example, that I’ve identified of four officers in the state of Ohio since 2015 who have been charged with murder, resulting from an on-duty shooting, and that, to me, is just a shocking statistic.”
One of those cases is that of former Columbus Police Officer Adam Coy. On Friday, Coy pleaded not guilty to his charges, which include murder.
Stinson, who spoke to 10TV in general terms and not specifically about the Coy case, says an indictment for murder is rare. But a conviction is even more unlikely. Most on-duty shootings are deemed justified.
Stinson says, since 2005, 130 law enforcement officers have been charged with murder or manslaughter. Of those, only 44 have been convicted.
Nineteen pleaded guilty, while 25 were convicted by a jury. No officer has ever been convicted on those charges by a bench trial.
RACE DATA FOR COMPLETED CASES:
Non-Black Officers:
- 37 convicted (victims in these cases: 21 Black, 16 non-Black)
- 45 not convicted (victims in these cases: 21 Black, 24 non-Black)
Black Officers:
- 7 convicted (victims in these cases: 4 Black, 3 non-Black)
- 7 not convicted (All 7 victims were also Black)
“Even in the cases where it’s been clear to me with the video evidence that a crime was committed, an officer committed a criminal homicide, we’ve seen it’s actually difficult for prosecutors to obtain convictions, even with what appears to be very strong video evidence,” Stinson said.