Studies

Research on racial bias in policing

“Programs such as… broken-windows policing shift the object of policing from one of crime to identity, and state-sanctioned profiling helps to create a supposed dichotomy between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ blacks…notion that blackness is an identity of inherent guilt."

“Even if white and non-white citizens use drugs at the same rate… disproportionate contact with the police would predict that black citizens would be … arrested for drug crimes more often… To reduce racially disparate stops… change how neighborhoods are policed."

“There is not always a direct correlation between a ‘high-crirme area’ and actual high rates of crime. The term ‘high-crime area’ has become code for an urban area, and more specifically, an area with a predominately dense population of black and Latino families."

No relationship between suspect race and injury to police. “Thus, it seems rather unlikely that racial differences in how citizens view the police is relevant in explicating why police are more likely to use force against Black suspects."

“Minority youth experiences during police encounters are overwhelmingly negative… Further, youth experienced little in the way of service or protection… Minority youth-police encounters represented in these studies were dehumanizing and morally excluding."

“Aggressive policing can also adversely affect the mental health of those targeted and the larger community… Police killings of unarmed black Americans resulted in 55 million poor mental health days annually in the black American community."

“More specifically, greater minority representation in law enforcement does not appear to reduce disparities in traffic stops… members of racial/ethnic minority groups are more likely to be stopped when police perceive them as being ‘out of place.'"

“Black fatalities are over seven times as likely as white fatalities to have been of unarmed individuals. Hispanic Americans in comparison also have a significant chance of a fatal encounter with police while being unarmed.” (@DrKLG4Health)