Why is there an increase in officer-involved shooting investigations in Ohio?

MOUNT VERNON — The Bureau of Criminal Investigation is leading probes into two Knox County fatal shooting cases involving law enforcement. Both incidents took place in the past week.

This scenario has played out locally against the backdrop of a statewide increase among BCI investigations.

As of Tuesday, the BCI has been asked to investigate 41 officer-involved shootings in Ohio in 2022. In 2021, the BCI investigated 69 officer-involved shootings. In 2020 it was 50, in 2019 it was 26, and in 2018 the unit investigated 20 officer-involved shootings, according to the Columbus Dispatch.

Though the number of BCI investigations has increased, it doesn’t necessarily correlate to an increase in officer-involved shootings, Ohio Attorney General Office’s Press Sec. Steve Irwin said.

Since 2020, it’s more common to see law enforcement use a third-party investigator when use of force took place, Irwin noted.

For example, Irwin said, previously, Columbus Police and the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office would have investigated their own officer involved shooting, respectively. Now both agencies rely on BCI to investigate.

In Knox County, BCI seized more than 1,000 firearms and 140,000 rounds of ammunition Monday while searching the estate where two brothers Randy A. Wilhelm and Bradley L. Wilhelm were shot and killed by law enforcement Sunday morning.

BCI is also investigating the fatal shooting of a 41-year-old woman in Butler Township that occurred Monday night during an exchange of gunfire with Knox County Sheriff’s Office deputies.

Fatal police shootings

The Washington Post has registered a statistical Fatal Force database that collects police shootings nationwide year by year.

In Ohio, according to the Washington Post, these are the numbers over the past five years: