FBI Will Improve Its System Of Tracking Police Shootings

WASHINGTON, Dec 8 (Reuters) - The Federal Bureau of Investigation plans to sharply expand the information it gathers on violent police encounters in the United States, the Washington Post quoted a senior FBI official as saying on Tuesday.

The agency's current system for tracking fatal police shootings is a "travesty" and it will be replaced by 2017, said Stephen L. Morris, assistant director of the Criminal Justice Information Services Division, according to the Post.

The new system will go beyond tracking fatal shootings and will for the first time track any case in which a police officer causes serious injury or death to civilians, including through the use of stun guns, pepper spray or even fists and feet, the Post quoted him as saying reported.

"People want to know what police are doing, and they want to know why they are using force. It always fell to the bottom before. It is now the highest priority," the Post quoted Morris as saying.

FBI Director James Comey is scheduled to testify to the Senate judiciary committee on Wednesday at 10 a.m. (1500 GMT).

(Reporting by Eric Walsh; Editing by Sandra Maler)