(Reuters) – More than half of U.S. police-related deaths between 1980 and 2018 were not recorded in the main government database according to a University of Washington study published in The Lancet.

According to the authors of the study, police violence was recorded by U.S. National Vital Statistics System as a factor in 13700 deaths during that time. The true number of deaths was estimated to be around 30,800 after examining three databases that were not governmental and open-source.

The databases that they looked at were Fatal Encounters (Mapping Police Violence) and The Counted.

According to a study in The Lancet (a leading British medical journal), the burden of police brutality is a serious public health problem in America.

Police officers are disproportionately affecting people from certain races or ethnicities. This points out that there is systemic racism in police work.

The death of George Floyd (a Black man) prompted protests in the United States. He was killed after an officer placed his neck on the ground for 8+ minutes. There were also other police incidents that resulted in Black people being shot and killed.

To address systematic biases, proven public health interventions strategies must be implemented. According to the study, state-level estimations allow for targeted targeting of strategies that address violence against police officers and improve their reporting.”