When Michael Brown was killed, his shooting death in August reignited a national conversation about how law enforcement police black communities. Among the threads of that conversation was one highlighting how hard it is to pin down just how many people police officers kill every year. 

A new bill, introduced today by Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) seeks to change that by requiring the Department of Justice to track exactly that, The Hill reported. "Before we can truly address the problem of excessive force used by law enforcement we have to understand the nature of the problem and that begins with accurate data," Cohen said in a statement.

As Congress is wrapping up for the year today, should Cohen want to see the bill through he’ll need to reintroduce it next year, The Hill reported.

Follow the bill at Congress.gov.