Gergia use-of-force project grows

Ga. police in national effort to collect data on shootings by officers.

As protests over police violence

against black citizens swelled in recent years, the lack of reliable government data embarrassed law enforcement officials and made it seem like the profession didn’t take the issue seriously.

Police track scores of statistics. So how could they not accurately say how often they killed someone in the line of duty?

A new national pilot project to fix the problem launched in July and Georgia is one of 13 states participating. The project’s goal is to gain an accurate measure of police use of force in all 50 states.

“It’s going to be used to influence training, tactics and responses to situations,” said Georgia Bureau of Investigation

Director Vernon Keenan, who was part of a national group of law enforcement leaders who

helped create the project. “It’s going be very important.”

But the program almost died before it ever got started, accord

ing to Keenan.

When President Trump took office in January, he ushered in a new law-and-order agenda with a new attorney general, Jeff Sessions, to oversee the Justice

Department. In certain corners of the administration, the National Use-of-Force Data Collection Project was seen as another federal

initiative thrust on state and local

police.

It didn’t help that the biggest champion at the federal level was then-FBI Director James Comey, who fell out of favor with President Trump in the early days of the administration. The president famously fired Comey in May.

A 27-year-old Gwinnett County man is wanted by police on drug charges after he fled from a local hospital on Sunday.

Kevin Dawkins of Snellville was arrested about 7 p.m. near Burdette Place after officers responded to a suspicious person call, Gwinnett police spokeswoman Michele Pihera said. She said officers used a Taser on Dawkins when they said he “became non-compliant.”

Afterward, Dawkins was going in and out of consciousness so an ambulance transported him to Eastside Medical Center, Pihera said.

Less than two hours later, Dawkins had fled the hospital while wearing handcuffs, Pihera said.

Pihera said he faces charges of possession of cocaine, obstruction and escape when he is captured.

BOB ANDRES / BANDRES@AJC. COM 2015 Vernon M. Keenan, director of the GBI, said of all participating states, Georgia has the most police agencies contributing to a program designed to measure use of force.