Studies

Research on racial bias in policing

(A better summary of the above paper)

“Our analysis can reconcile the distinction Fryer Jr. (2016) documents between lethal and non-lethal force against civilians…. Black civilians should be disproportionately subject to non-lethal force but not necessarily … [to] lethal encounters with police."

“Despite evidence of racial disparities … officers described operating under a neutral policy of ‘colorblindness.’ … Yet officers' thoughts and actions are based on racialized and, at times, dehumanizing narratives about people and communities of color."

"[Chicago] PD has tolerated racially discriminatory conduct that not only undermines police legitimacy, but also contributes to the pattern of unreasonable force… illegal and unconstitutional patterns of force on minority communities." – Department of Justice, 2017

“Compared with [police misconduct] allegations filed by white complainants, allegations from black complainants were 0.499 times less likely to be sustained. … Allegations made by [police] were sustained at a rate 21.6 times higher than allegations made by outsiders."

“This finding comports with prior LIH [“Legal Intervention Homicide” by police] research that finds that black Americans are not only disproportionately likely to be killed by law enforcement but are disproportionately unlikely to present an objective threat of deadly force”

“The police are viewed negatively, or at best neutrally, but never positively, by young women of color… Findings of our study also emphasize that perceptions of the police held by women of color are influenced both by personal and vicarious experiences of police behavior."

“Suspect resistance exerts the strongest effects on the odds of [police] force being used… We also observed statistically significant differences in the application of force by suspect age, sex, race, and mental illness—above and beyond the effects of resistance."