Studies

Research on racial bias in policing

[England] “Black men were more than [3x] more likely to be arrested than White men, whilst Black women and Black boys were also significantly more likely to be arrested than White women and boys. Mixed ethnic men and women were also more than [2x] as likely to be arrested."

“A computer… shifts accountability from departmental decision-makers to black-box machinery that purports to be scientific, evidence-based and race-neutral. Predictive policing is simply reproducing and magnifying the same biases the police have historically held."

“Identification of those suspected to be ‘foreign’ was largely based on…appearance—namely skin color…and language/accent… It was common for a person’s darker skin colour to prompt questions about… nationality… despite…insistence that they were British citizens."

“This cooperation between ICE and local law enforcement is a critical component of racial and gendered disparities in deportation trends… Police officers are more likely to stop and arrest black and Latino men, which in turn leads to higher deportation rates."

“Based on data collected from various jurisdictions, the vast majority of studies have confirmed that race/ethnicity matters in traffic stops, with Blacks being significantly more likely than Whites to be stopped."

The simulation results “demonstrate that even if police sent to a neighborhood discover crime incidents according to the true crime rate, the … model will converge to only sending police to the neighborhood with the most crime” & “Runaway feedback in predictive policing."

“Officers also showed a prior bias to shoot Black men when no dispatch information was provided…Although most officers showed some anti-Black prior bias, certain officers showed up to four times as much bias as the group average."

“Black but not white men reporting personal or vicarious UTBP [unfair treatment by police] had shorter telomeres than men not reporting UTBP … [which] may contribute to racial disparities in health and mortality more broadly."

“Data-driven policing thereby facilitates racialized criminalization through a feedback loop of arrests, tickets, data-entry, data-analysis, and patrol deployments… Differential production of crime data…reinforces… disproportionate patrolling of racialized minorities."