I’ve written before about how policing contributes to racial inequities by its very nature. A new piece of research out of Chicago is showing how racial inequities occur based on the responding officer. In this study, researchers were able to analyze a massive dataset to identify differences in police actions based on the race and gender of the officer involved, as well as the citizen.
The short version is that the authors found that Black officers and female officers were significantly less likely to arrest or use force against citizens than White officers or male officers. The effect was especially pronounced when officers were dealing with Black citizens. Additionally, the researchers did not find significant differences when analyzing responses to violent crime — only minor infractions contributed to the disparities.
This is a fantastic study that provides a level of detail into police interactions that we typically don’t have access to. It highlights several big problems in policing — in addition to the racial disparities, it also shows that officer responses are not consistent.
As with most large datasets of police activity, it’s virtually impossible to pinpoint racial bias as the cause of the differences between Black, White, and Hispanic officer decisions. It definitely suggests that racial bias could be present, but it’s impossible to know for certain.
What is certain is that outcomes for citizens are dependent on the race and gender of the responding officer, as well as the race of the citizen. This is a completely unacceptable situation for public safety.
One of the worst parts of an abusive relationship is the uncertainty. Even when things are calm, the abused partner is never sure when the violent, volatile abuser will emerge. The abused partner never knows which version of their partner is going to walk through the door. This creates huge amounts of stress.
When someone calls the police, they don’t know which officer is going to show up. They don’t know if it is going to be an angry, biased cop who will make the situation worse just by being there. They don’t know if it will be someone wearing a Confederate flag shirt under their uniform. They don’t know if it will be someone who has fantasized about slaughtering Black people. They don’t know if it will be someone who will listen to them and help solve their problem, which is what a lot of police interactions consist of.
Without knowing which version of a police officer is going to show up, any police interaction is much more stressful for the citizen — and particularly for minority groups.
In the study I mentioned earlier, the authors recommended greater diversity in hiring for police departments. With more Black and female officers, there would be even fewer uses of force or unnecessary arrests for minor offenses that don’t impact actual safety. And, yes, this is important. We should have more diversity among police departments to better match the communities that are being policed.
But greater diversity is a band-aid on the problem, which is that White, male officers are antagonizing the public. Once again, we are asking marginalized communities to solve the problems that are created by privileged communities.
Police departments need to manage their officer behavior so that responses are consistent. They need to identify the areas where these disparities exist, and then address them. By ignoring the issue, departments are saying that they don’t care about unnecessary uses of force. They’re saying that they don’t care that citizens are treated differently based on their race. They’re saying that they don’t care if White officers have worse outcomes than Black officers.
We deserve to know who will be showing up if we call the police. Minority groups deserve to know that neither their race nor the officer’s race will affect what happens to them in that interaction. We can’t say that right now.
It’s no wonder that people are calling to abolish the police altogether. People are tired of this abusive relationship, and they just want it to end. We need to build a healthy relationship. Diversity is a start, but dismantling the police culture that leads White officers to employ force and arrest Black people more often is the core issue.
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This post was previously published on Medium.
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Photo credit: Mike Von on Unsplash