Fatal Police Shootings in Jamaica

This exploratory paper is about police fatal shootings and why it is an under-researched area in the Jamaican context. Following a review of literature on fatal police shootings, secondary data and textual analysis of news reports and incident reports, the findings suggest the under-researched situation. The findings also suggested there is an advancement in the normative way of keeping a check on fatal police shootings, but there needs to be progress in the generation and use of data. This data-driven approach to understanding fatal police shooting is important given a significant decline in incidents in the period after 2011 and a continuity of incidents despite organizational and institutional changes to strengthen accountability.