It commended the New York Police Department for initiating a program, in the wake of the Edwards shooting, to test officers for unconscious racial bias, something Mr. Stone said he hoped would be replicated across the country.

Laurie O. Robinson, assistant attorney general for the Office of Justice Programs in the Justice Department, said the recommendations were something it would “review and consider very seriously.” She said she had shared them with colleagues.

The recommendations are aimed at “blunting” any unconscious racial bias, Mr. Carter said. They call for establishing protocols for off-duty conduct, increasing testing for racial bias among officers and improving how police departments manage such encounters when they occur within their ranks. One focused on prosecutors, calling for them to disclose publicly as much detail as possible about such encounters, and early on, to avoid having facts disappear in a fog of grand jury secrecy.

The 67-page report outlined the facts of the Edwards and Ridley shootings, as well as some of the 24 other fatal encounters since 1981. The task force spoke with current and former officers. It drew on three public hearings held around the state — in Albany in November and in Harlem and in White Plains in December. It identified several trends in reviewing the cases and in analyzing existing research on the topic.

Most of the 26 victims were male. Of the 10 off-duty victims, 8 worked in plainclothes, and 6 worked undercover.

Of the 26 fatal shootings, 5, including Officer Ridley’s case, involved an off-duty officer who came across a crime in progress and moved to help other officers or a civilian, the report found. In five other cases, including the Edwards shooting, an off-duty officer was a crime victim and then tried to make an arrest or to take police action, the report found. The only other New York City case the group studied involved Officer Eric Hernandez, who was off duty when he was shot by a colleague who responded to a 911 call and saw him in the aftermath of a brawl at a White Castle restaurant in 2006.

In all but 2 of the 26 fatal shootings of officers that were examined, the victim was holding a gun and had it “displayed” when he or she was shot, the report found. Indeed, it noted, “many of the victim officers with guns displayed reportedly failed to comply with the commands of challenging officers who ordered them to freeze or to drop their weapons.”