U.S. police have shot and killed 385 people in the first five months of 2015 - more than two a day, according to an analysis by The Washington Post.
The Post compiled its data by scouring news reports, police records, interviews and open sources on the Internet in an attempt to track every fatal shooting by police since January.
"These shootings are grossly under-reported," Jim Bueermann, a former police chief and president of the nonprofit law enforcement watchdog, the Police Foundation, told the Post. "We are never going to reduce the number of police shootings if we don't begin to accurately track this information."
About half of the victims, ranging in age from 16 to 83, were white, and half minority. More than 80 percent were armed with potentially lethal objects - mostly guns, but also other objects such as knives, machetes or a revved vehicle. Two-thirds of the 49 people who had no weapon were black or Hispanic.
Thirteen people were found to be carrying toy guns. Overall, 16 percent of victims were either unarmed or carrying a toy gun, the Post found. Ninety-two were found to be mentally ill by either police or family members.
After adjusting for census numbers for areas where the killings occurred, the Post found that black people were three times more likely to be killed than white people.
The report comes after a number of fatal police shootings of unarmed black men, and an ensuing national debate over the unnecessary use of force among law enforcement.
Police are permitted to use deadly force if they feel that their life or the lives of others are at stake.
Only three of the 385 fatal shootings have resulted in an officer being charged with a crime, according to the Post.
The Post's figure is more than double the FBI's estimate, which shows about 400 fatal police shootings per year, though officials admit their count is incomplete since reporting is voluntary. Less than three percent of the nation's 18,000 state and local law enforcement agencies have voluntarily submitted data to the FBI about deadly police shootings since 2011, according the newspaper.
