During an oversight hearing on the Justice Department held by the House judiciary committee on Tuesday, The Guardian reports that U.S. attorney general Loretta Lynch said that there is “no data” to support the so-called “Ferguson effect.”

The Ferguson effect, as described by FBI director James Comey, is the idea that police officers are less likely to enforce the law for fear of scrutiny.

“The question is, are these kinds of things changing police behavior around the country?” Comey said at a conference in Chicago last month. “The honest answer is I don’t know for sure whether that’s the case…but I do have a strong sense.”

(He also referred to a “wind of viral videos” that is “surely changing behavior.”)

“While certainly there may be anecdotal evidence there, as all have noted, there’s no data to support it,” Lynch said Tuesday.

“Our discussion about civil rights and the appropriate use of force and all police tactics can only serve to make all of us—community members and police officers—safer.”

Photo via AP Images. Contact the author of this post: brendan.oconnor@gawker.com.