Panel urges data collection, independent prosecution of police killings in U.S.

Deadly police shootings should be investigated by independent prosecutors and data on shootings by law enforcement officers should also be collected, said a panel Monday in a report to U.S. President Barack Obama.

The purpose of appointing external and independent prosecutors for reviewing police uses and force and for prosecution in cases of questionable deadly police force will "demonstrate the transparency to the public that can lead to mutual trust between community and law," said the interim report by the panel, which was established after the police killing of unarmed black men in Ferguson and New York City and considered as President Obama's task force on 21st century policing.

The report also urged the federal government to support the development of new "less than lethal" technology to help control combative suspects and decrease the number of fatal police interventions.

"The fatal shootings in Ferguson, Cleveland, and elsewhere have put the consequences of use of force front and center in the national news. Policies and procedures must change, but so should the weaponry," said the panel in the report.

Widespread of protests erupted last year after local grand juries declined to indict police officers involved in the deadly shooting of an unarmed black man Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and the choking death of Eric Garner on Staten Island in New York City.

In his speech after meeting the panel Monday, Obama emphasized the importance of data collecting on police shootings, admitting that under current policing mechanism, the federal government "do not have a good sense" of how frequently police shootings led to a death, a concern shared previously by U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director James Comey.

In his first public discussion after the Ferguson and New York City incidents raised heated debates in recent months, Comey said on Feb. 12 that without better data collection and analysis of how police officers using force during patrols, sound policy decision would be hard to make.

Other major recommendations included ending all racial profiling by law enforcement agencies, more community policing, and more positive relations between police forces and neighborhood institutions, particularly schools, in order to enhance mutual trusts.

"The more there is trust between communities and law enforcement, the safer it is for cops," said Obama. "the more effectively they can do their jobs, the more cooperation there's going to be, the more likely those communities are to be safe." Endite