Studies

Research on racial bias in policing

“Virtually all white officers (92%) but only 29% of their black colleagues say that the country has made the changes needed to assure equal rights for blacks. … The views of white officers differ from those of their black colleagues … [and] from those of whites overall."

“Black lives are systematically undervalued even when governments do compensate victims of police violence… Courts use race-based actuarial tables to calculate… lower damages valuations for Black lives since the tables estimate that they will live shorter lives."

“Governments paid approximately 99.98% … [Police] almost never contributed anything to [civil rights violations] settlements or judgments—even when indemnification was prohibited…and even when officers were disciplined, terminated, or prosecuted for their conduct."

“Everything else being equal, Black males were more likely to be questioned and searched by the police; once stopped, they were more likely to be arrested; once arrested, they were more likely to be held for trial rather than being released on bail; once tried, they were…"

“Police officers correctly responded more quickly to guns, but more slowly to nonguns, held by Black targets than by targets of any other race.” & “Reaction time bias to shoot Black targets increased as a function of … prejudice reported on the discrimination scale."

The more “stereotypically Black” a black murderer looks, the more experimental participants were willing to punish the offender, but only when the victim was white.

“Reading about Black criminals dramatically increased … tendency to make a stereotypic pattern of errors (shooting unarmed Blacks, failing to shoot armed Whites)… When information reinforced … the stereotypic link between Blacks and danger … errors increased."

“When trying to understand…behaviors of individuals who are in a position to discriminate… one cannot rely on explicitly espoused attitudes alone, but…may need to understand…the motivation of the individuals to conceal their prejudice and certain implicit attitudes."

"[Bias] training may actually normalize stereotyping by promoting the notion that implicit bias is common and expected, thereby decreasing trainees' guilt and motivation to overcome it. … This possibility could have catastrophic implications for law enforcement."