The Truth Behind Police-Involved Shootings In Amarillo And Lubbock: Unveiling The Data

If you have lived in the Texas Panhandle and West Texas for a extended period of time, you know that Amarillo, Texas and Lubbock, Texas have this unspoken battle going on for who is the better city.

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Truthfully, each city is great in its own way and horrible in others, for the most part, they are both truly great places to live.

However, one thing each city has is a lot of crime and it's just crazy.  With Lubbock being a little bit bigger than Amarillo you would think they would see a higher rate of crime.  However, one thing that Amarillo beat Lubbock out on is the amount of police-involved shootings.

Police Involved Shootings Amarillo

According to Police Scorecard, from 2013 - 2021 Amarillo had 21 police-involved shootings.  That equals out to 3.9 for every 100,000 arrests.  Out of those 21 shootings where law enforcement was involved, 13 of those we deadly.   Deadly force in that same time frame equaled out 2.4 for every 10,000 arrests.

Read: APD Chief Responds to Police-Involved Shootings Article

According to those same stats, a black person was 4.3x and a Latinx person 8.6x as likely to be killed using deadly force as a White person in Amarillo.

Police Involved Shootings Lubbock

Police Scorecard, from 2013 - 2021 for Lubbock showed 18 police-involved shootings.  That equals out to 2.7 for every 100,000 arrests.  Out of those 218 shootings where law enforcement was involved, 6 of those we deadly.   Deadly force in that same time frame equaled out 0.9 for every 10,000 arrests.

According to those same stats, a black person was 6.9x and a Latinx person 6x as like to be killed using deadly force as a White person in Lubbock.

Those statistics in either city are scary.  Hopefully, the next time frame they choose to study, this will have time to turn itself around and our cities will be safer with less crime.