At least a dozen people died in Nevada from 2012 to 2021 during or shortly after encounters with police that did not involve a gun. That's according to an investigation by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at Arizona State University, which collaborated with The Associated Press on researching non-shooting deaths after a police encounter. Because these kinds of deadly police encounters are often not publicly reported, no one knows how many truly occur. With attention largely focused on reducing police shooting deaths, deaths involving what law enforcement calls “less-lethal force” often escape the kind of public scrutiny that can lead to reforms. They are also less clear-cut than shootings, in part because they often involve a mental health or drug-induced crisis.
