Fact check: How many people have been killed by police and ICE in 2025

1. Summary of the results

Based on the available analyses, complete data for police and ICE killings in 2025 is not yet available, as we are only partway through the year. However, several key data points emerge:

Police Killings:

• Chicago police officers shot 12 people, killing 6, during the first five months of 2025 ^[1]
• Historical context shows that police killed 1,123 people in 2022 ^[2] and more than 600 people are killed by law enforcement annually according to general statistics ^[3]
• An estimated 250,000 civilians are injured by law enforcement annually ^[3]

ICE Deaths in Custody:

• 12 people have died in ICE custody since October 2024, which matches the previous year's total with three months still remaining in the fiscal year ^{[4] [5]}
• The mortality rate of ICE detainees is about 21.3 deaths per 100,000 people ^[4]
• Historical data shows the lowest number of ICE detention deaths was 3 in fiscal year 2022, and the highest was 21 in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic ^[5]

2. Missing context/alternative viewpoints

The original question lacks several important contextual elements:

• Definitional clarity: The question conflates police killings (active use of force) with ICE deaths in custody (which may include medical issues, suicide, or other causes), representing fundamentally different categories of deaths ^{[4] [5]}
• Systemic reform context: The Chicago Police Department has fully complied with only 16% of court-ordered reforms aimed at reducing police violence, suggesting ongoing institutional resistance to change ^[1]
• Policy implications: Human rights groups warn that more ICE deaths are "inevitable" due to increased and aggressive detention policies ^{[4] [5]}, indicating that current immigration enforcement strategies may prioritize detention numbers over safety
• Comparative mortality rates: While ICE's mortality rate appears lower than the general U.S. prison system, the ICE population has a far quicker turnaround, making direct comparisons potentially misleading ^[4]

Who benefits from different narratives:

• Law enforcement agencies and their unions benefit from emphasizing officer safety statistics, such as the 53% drop in officer deaths nationwide in the first half of 2025 ^[6]
• Immigration enforcement advocates may benefit from downplaying ICE custody deaths by comparing them to prison mortality rates
• Criminal justice reform organizations benefit from highlighting police killing statistics to support policy changes

3. Potential misinformation/bias in the original statement

The original question, while not explicitly biased, contains several problematic assumptions:

• Temporal impossibility: Requesting complete 2025 data when the year is only partway through creates an expectation for information that cannot yet exist comprehensively
• Category conflation: Grouping police killings with ICE custody deaths implies these are equivalent phenomena, when they involve different circumstances, legal frameworks, and causes of death
• Missing baseline context: The question lacks historical comparison points that would help contextualize whether 2025 numbers represent an increase, decrease, or continuation of trends
• Incomplete data presentation: The available sources show that comprehensive national tracking of police killings remains inconsistent, with only partial data available from specific jurisdictions like Chicago ^[1]

The question appears designed to elicit a specific numerical response that cannot be accurately provided, potentially leading to either speculation or the appearance that such data is being withheld, when in reality comprehensive real-time tracking systems for these incidents remain inadequate.