article_snippet.sent: this section has effectively been ignored, beyond a first attempt at a comprehensive report published in 1996.
article_snippet.sent: There are multiple reasons the law has been ignored.
article_snippet.sent: These hurdles could be overcome by a determined effort from Washington, but Congress has failed to press the Justice Department to demand the data and comply with the law.
article_snippet.sent: A weak substitute called the Death in Custody Reporting Act was passed in 2000 and renewed in 2014, but it is a voluntary reporting program intended to coax information out of local departments.
article_snippet.sent: Some of the data gap has been filled by media organizations -- and what media organizations have discovered only underscores the need for muscular, mandatory enforcement of the law.
article_snippet.sent: But it will take more pressure -- from activists, victims' families, members of Congress and President Barack Obama himself -- to demand an end to the stonewalling of information.