From the Department of Justice (DOJ) website, between 2003 and 2009, there were a total of 4,813 deaths reported to the DOJ as arrest-related deaths. Of those, about 6 in 10 were classified as homicide by law enforcement personnel. During this time, the FBI estimated that nearly 98 million arrests were made in the United States. Of the number of deaths:
White non-Hispanic 2026
Black non-Hispanic 1529
Hispanic 949
Other 150
Unknown 159
Also, of reported arrest-related deaths, 45% of decedents allegedly engaged in assault either immediately prior to or during the process of arrest. No criminal charges were intended to be filed against 163 (3%) persons who died during the process of arrest. Among arrest-related deaths attributed to homicide, 75% of decedents allegedly engaged in violent offenses.
Below is the link to the stats.
I’ve found no stats on the race of the arresting officers.
You can make your own conclusions. One conclusion I’ve come to is that, like most people, I’ve been watching the news on this (Fox, CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC) haven’t heard a single arrest-related death statistic. Not that stats tell the whole story, but it’s a place to start.
Right in that report it states:
“Arrest-related deaths are under-reported. BJS did not
attempt to estimate for partial or non-responding
jurisdictions. Data are more representative of the nature
of arrest-related deaths than the volume at which they
occur.”
http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ard0309st.pdf