Police Brutality

Police Brutality

Emergence and Context of Modern Policing

  • Goal of modern policing in the U.S.:

    • Improve police efficiency and effectiveness.

    • Increase public confidence in police.

    • Reduce misconduct, notably police brutality.

  • Definition of police brutality:

    • Usage of unreasonable, unnecessary, and/or excessive physical force during police-citizen interactions.

  • Police brutality contrasts with:

    • Community-oriented policing  

    • Improving police-citizen relationships and community partnerships.

    • Combatting crime.

Impact of Police Brutality

  • Repeated allegations of brutality can lead to:

    • Community-level animus toward the police.

    • Decreased perceived legitimacy of police.

    • Reduced citizen cooperation and compliance.

  • High-profile cases of police brutality:

    • Easily accessible via media, generating public outrage.

  • Communities impacted:

    • Racial minorities in economically disadvantaged areas face heightened issues of police brutality.

  • Necessity to explore nuances and controversies of police brutality.

Conceptualizing and Operationalizing Police Brutality

  • Conceptualization of police brutality:

    • Needs comparison to appropriately used force.

  • Acceptable use of force by officers:

    • To subdue individuals engaging in dangerous or problematic behavior (e.g., resisting arrest, brandishing a weapon).

  • Force methods exist on a continuum:

    • Nonlethal (e.g., physical restraint) to lethal (e.g., firearm use).

  • Ideal practice:

    • Use the least forceful method that effectively manages the situation (not legally mandated by the 4th Amendment).

Definition Aspects of Police Brutality

  • Unreasonable force:

    • Assess if an average officer would act similarly in a comparable scenario (based on the reasonable man standard).

  • Unnecessary force:

    • Using physical force in situations that could be resolved without it.

  • Excessive force:

    • Uneven response beyond necessary levels to manage a situation.

  • Other forms of brutality may include aggressive order maintenance policing or verbal harassment.

Estimating the Prevalence of Police Brutality

  • Challenges:

    • Lack of comprehensive national/local data on police misconduct.

  • Key findings:

    • Use of force occurs in roughly 5% of police-citizen encounters, with lower levels of force used.

    • Instances of police brutality in approximately 2% of interactions (Worden 2015).

  • Data sources attempting to quantify police brutality:

    • Uniform Crime Report (UCR).

    • National Vital Statistics System (NVSS).

    • Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) (do not determine if deaths were due to police brutality).

Notable Statistics

  • 2015 National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS):

    • Among respondents having nonfatal encounters, only 1.8% reported warning or use of force.

    • Nearly 48% perceived the police's actions during their last encounter as excessive (Davis, Whyde, & Langton 2018).

  • 2019 Estimation via Media:

    • The Washington Post reported 933 fatalities due to police shootings.

    • National Police Misconduct Reporting Project (NPMRP):

    • Excessive force made up 23.8% of 4,734 nonlethal and 127 lethal incidents analyzed from 2010 media accounts.

Debates and Controversies Surrounding Police Brutality

  • Overrepresentation of Racial Minorities:

    • Difficult to ascertain exact degrees of overrepresentation due to poor data collection on police brutality incidents.

    • Findings:

    • Black males overrepresented in force incidents, regardless of legality (Worden 2015).

    • Black citizens face a lifetime risk of death in police encounters at a rate 2.5 times greater than white citizens (Edwards, Lee, & Esposito 2019).

  • Proportions in fatal shootings (2019):

    • Of 956 deaths in police shootings, approximately 24% involved a black individual—double their population representation (approx. 13%).

  • Notable historical patterns:

    • Historical practices contributing to contemporary police brutality cases (e.g., slave patrols, Jim Crow laws).

  • Prominent Cases of Police Brutality:

    • Rodney King (1991): Beaten by LAPD officers, leading to riots after officers were acquitted.

    • Malice Green (1992): Died from injuries after being beaten by officers in Detroit.

    • Amadou Diallo (1999): Shot multiple times by NYPD officers mistaken for a firearm.

    • Eric Garner (2014): Suffocated during police encounter in New York City over perceived illegal activity.

    • Michael Brown (2014): Killed during an altercation that ignited community unrest in Ferguson, Missouri.

    • Tamir Rice (2014): 12-year-old shot by police while holding a toy gun.

    • Philando Castile (2016): Fatally shot during a traffic stop, documented live on social media.

Intersectionality with Sexual and Gender Identity Minorities

  • LGBT individuals historically face elevated police brutality compared to other demographics, particularly among intersectional identities (e.g., black transgender women).

  • Past police conduct:

    • Regular raids on gay bars; undercover entrapment of gay men.

  • Stonewall Riots (1969):

    • A pivotal moment in LGBT history following police raids at the Stonewall Inn.

  • Contemporary research suggests ongoing police brutality against LGBT citizens, including physical and verbal assaults (Wolff & Cokely 2007).

Identifying the Underlying Causes of Police Brutality

  • **Key factors influencing police brutality:

    • Organizational Characteristics:**

    • Department responses to allegations and practices perpetuated through policing culture.

    • Importance of addressing “bad apples” within departments effectively, with administrative support.

    • Militarization of police and machinery increasing separation from communities.

Officer-Level Characteristics

  • Individual officers' discretion plays a critical role under stressful, rapidly evolving situations.

  • Mixed research outcomes on officer traits (educational level, gender, race, personality).

Sociological Characteristics

  • Economic and social status influence likelihood of police brutality incidences; minority neighborhoods often encounter higher police surveillance and interaction rates.

Increasing Accountability for Police Brutality

  • Investigations of police misconduct often end with findings of justified actions.

  • Notable statistics from allegations against officers:

    • Of 8,300 misconduct allegations, only 3,328 triggered charges.

    • Successful convictions hover around one-third (Packman 2011).

Forms of Accountability

  • Internal Accountability Measures:

    • Coroner inquests, internal investigations, grand jury proceedings, trials.

  • Early Warning Systems:

    • Track officers showing repeated misconduct patterns, though implementation is rare and their effectiveness is under debate.

  • Increased usage of body cameras and dash cameras to ensure transparency.

  • External Accountability Measures:

    • Civilian Review Boards conducting independent investigations and providing oversight.

    • Mobilizing community efforts to exert pressure on law enforcement to review cases of alleged brutality.

References

  • Brandl, Steven G. and Stroshine, Meghan S. “The Role of Officer Attributes, Job Characteristics, and Arrest Activity in Explaining Police Use of Force.” Criminal Justice Policy Review no. 24 (2012): 551-572.

  • Brunson, Rod K. and Gau, Jacinta M. “Race, Place, and Policing the Inner-City.” In The Oxford Handbook of Police and Policing, edited by Michael D. Reisig and Robert J. Kane, 362-382. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2014.

  • Davis, Elizabeth, Whyde, Anthony, and Langton, Lynn. Contacts between Police and the Public. NCJ No. 251145. Washington, D.C.: Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2018.

  • Duberman, Martin. Stonewall. New York City, New York: Penguin Books USA Inc., 1994.

  • Edwards, Frank, Lee, Hedwig, and Esposito, Michael. “Risk of Being Killed by Police Use of Force in the United States by Age, Race/Ethnicity, and Sex.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. www.pnas.org

  • Kindy, Kimberly and Kelly, Kimbriell. “Thousands Dead, Few Prosecuted,” The Washington Post, April 11th, 2015, www.washingtonpost.com

  • Kelly, John and Nichols, Mark. “We Found 85,000 Cops Who’ve Been Investigated for Misconduct. Now You Can Read Their Records,” USA Today, October 14th, 2019, USAtoday.com

  • Lyle, Perry and Esmail, Ashraf F. “Sworn to Protect: Police Brutality – A Dilemma for America’s Police.” Race, Gender, & Class no. 23 (2016): 155-185.

  • Packman, David. 2010 NPMSRP Police Misconduct Statistical Report. Washington, D.C.: The Cato Institute’s National Police Misconduct Reporting Project, 2011.

  • Reaves, Brian A. Local Police Departments, 2013: Personnel, Policies, and Practices. NCJ No. 248677. Washington, D.C.: Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2013.

  • The New York Times, “What Happened in Ferguson?” August 10th, 2015, www.nytimes.com

  • Walker, Samuel E. and Archbold, Carol A. The New World of Police Accountability, 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications, 2020.

  • Washington Post, “2019 Police Shootings Database.” January 8th, 2020, www.washingtonpost.com

  • Worden, Robert E. “The Causes of Police Brutality: Theory and Evidence on Police Use of Force.” In Criminal Justice Theory: Explaining the Nature and Behavior of Criminal Justice, 2nd Edition, edited by Edward R. Maguire and David E. Duffee, 149-204. New York City, NY: Routledge, 2015.

  • Wolff, Kristina B. and Cokely, Carrie L. “‘To Protect and Serve?’: An Exploration of Police Conduct in Relation to the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Community.” Sex Culture no. 11 (2007): 1-23.