Violent crime reached a high in California in 1992, when 338 people died in police and prison custody by means mostly natural but sometimes grisly – drug overdoses, strangulation, knife attacks, beatings.

Only seven of those died from firearms, according to statistics from the California Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

By 2015, violent crime in the Golden State had plunged by nearly half. But the number of deaths in official custody had nearly doubled, hitting a record high of 760 people, including 121 who died from firearms.

In the wake of the recent police-caused deaths of unarmed, and often black, civilians in El Cajon, Los Angeles and elsewhere, experts tried to explain a disturbing trend that seems to defy basic logic:

Why, when there is so much less violent crime, are so many more people perishing in custody?

It surely has something to do with California’s incarceration craze. About 25,000 people were in state prisons in 1980; that increased more than 400 percent, to 129,000, by 2015, according to figures from the state Department of Corrections. More people in custody means more deaths.

But the data, particularly the number of police shootings, indicates the rising prison population isn’t the only thing driving the trend.

“At the end of the day, police officers want to come home safely,” said Chris Brown, associate professor of criminal justice at California State University Fullerton. “In a tense situation where it seems like it’s the suspect’s life or the officer’s life, 99.9 percent of the time the suspect is going to lose his life.”

There’s simply more fear and distrust today than there was decades ago.

“Many police are afraid of citizens, especially in high crime areas with non-white populations. And many community members are afraid of the police,” said Brown. “It’s a function of fear, unconscious bias, and police training – or the lack of it.”

It has been a dangerous dance: Since the 1980s, street gangs have morphed into sophisticated criminal enterprises equipped with high-powered weaponry, even as local police departments militarized with automatic rifles, armored personnel carriers, night vision goggles and other war-tool hand-me-downs from the Defense Department.

“These unfortunate incidents contribute to the breach of trust between law enforcement and the communities we are sworn to serve,” said Brenda Gonzalez, spokeswoman for California Attorney General Kamala Harris.

The data used in this analysis is from Harris’s massive digital release of more than 30 years of public safety statistics in California. The “OpenJustice” initiative – openjustice.doj.ca.gov – is aimed at improving transparency and accountability after deadly conflicts between police and minorities sparked outrage across the nation.

Harris hopes that freeing the data will provoke soul-searching among police, policymakers and community members.

DEAD

Between 1980 and 2016, there were 16,101 deaths of suspects or prisoners in law enforcement custody. That includes people who died during arrests, in transit to or from jail or court, in jail itself and the like.

• Los Angeles County logged the most deaths – 2,089. Nearly half – 956 – were a result of natural causes, according to DOJ statistics. “Justified homicides” by law enforcement took 347 lives; suicide took 277 lives; and accidents took another 255.

• San Bernardino County logged 1,145 deaths. Natural causes accounted for 1044. There were 146 suicides, 122 justified homicides by law enforcement, and 52 accidental deaths.

• Riverside County logged 576 in-custody deaths, many again tied to its several state prisons. Natural causes again accounted for about half the deaths – 268 – while justified homicides by law enforcement took 137 lives, suicides took 64 and accidents took 62.

• Orange County logged 340 such deaths, a lower number partly because there is no state prison in the county’s borders. About one-third, 112, were from natural causes while 89 were justified homicides by law enforcement; 53 were suicides and 43 were accidental.

While deaths-in-custody averaged about 450 per year, deaths of law enforcement officers in the line of duty averaged 10 per year between 1980 and 2014, according to the Attorney General’s office.

There were a total of 345 deaths of officers on duty, the AG said: 187 were unlawful deaths, and 158 were accidental deaths.

Brown, the CSU Fullerton professor, pointed out that the deaths of civilians at the hands of police, and of police at the hands of civilians, are quite rare. But they still happen far too often, he said.

TRAINING

There are no comprehensive official statistics yet on officer-involved shootings, but the FBI has directed local police agencies to start compiling them.

An investigation by the nonprofit investigative organization ProPublica in 2014 concluded that young black males are 21 times more likely to be shot by police than their white counterparts. Of 1,217 deadly police shootings from 2010 to 2012 captured in federal data, blacks aged 15 to 19 were killed at a rate of 31.17 per million, while white males in that age range were killed at the far lower rate of 1.47 per million, ProPublica found.

Attorney General Harris hopes to force systematic change on the criminal justice system “by increasing the accountability and transparency needed to restore trust between law enforcement and California communities,” spokeswoman Gonzalez said. “By collaborating with and convening local law enforcement to share best practices, creating the first nationwide procedural justice and implicit bias course for California law enforcement, and launching a first-of-its-kind open data initiative – OpenJustice – our office is taking major steps to ensure a fairer, more equitable criminal justice system for all.”

For Fullerton’s Brown, the whole debate circles back to inherent bias and fear.

“When officers are confronted by a large African American male, it heightens their fear,” said Brown, who lives in Irvine but grew up near Watts. “It goes back to police training, or lack thereof.”

More serious moves toward “community policing” – which forces officers out of their patrol cars to get to know community members, absent any crises – and more training on de-escalating confrontations rather than reaching for guns are necessary, he said.

Brown recently drove from Fullerton to his old neighborhood near Watts at night, and was pulled over by two black officers for reasons that still mystify him. The officers approached his car – one on either side – with guns drawn. He made sure his hands were on the steering wheel – but he was scared. Later, he was angry.

“I am a 50-year old college professor with a PhD,” Brown said. “How do you think a young African American male or a young Hispanic male would react to being treated this way, with this cowboy mentality? My worst fear is of a war between African American males and law enforcement.”

Respect, he said, can go a long way. If police were more respectful toward citizens, they’d see a reciprocal response.

“Me, hey, but for the will of God there go I,” said Brown. “First thing people see when they look at me is my black skin. Not my doctorate.”

Contact the writer: tsforza@scng.com

Updated 10:20 a.m. Oct. 5 with links