Community Policing: Misunderstanding and Misapplication Following Police Shootings

Prevailing community policing theory identifies the purpose of community policing being to empower state policing not diminish it. This basis identifies a major misconception of those arguing for police defunding, as it fails to address the realities and limitations of street-level bureaucrats in exercising their authority. Misapplying emotional calls for restructuring into perceived democratic control of the bureaucracy. This article explores the inherent problems within community policing and serves to link these problems within a larger discussion of governance and policing, making an argument that the calls for defunding and community policing at best demonstrate misunderstanding and at worst represent a poorly articulated political ploy. In either case, understanding the larger role of how the state legitimates policing identifies an inherent disconnect between policy and implementation. Substantive change in policing must come from changes in the law that provide the staying power for reform to overcome bureaucratic retrenchment to change and in our view of governance, specifically in what should be enforced and the role of government in maintaining order, to ensure that these reflect the realities of policing.

Factors associated with police shooting mortality: A focus on race and a plea for more comprehensive data

Objectives To quantify nonfatal injurious police shootings of people and examine the factors associated with victim mortality. Methods We gathered victim-level data on fatal and nonfatal injurious police shootings from four states that have such information publicly available: Florida (2009–14), Colorado (2010–19), Texas (2015–19), and California (2016–19). For each state, we examined bivariate associations between mortality and race/ethnicity, gender, age, weapon, and access to trauma care. We also estimated logistic regression models predicting victim mortality in each state. Results Forty-five percent of these police shooting victims (N = 1,322) did not die. Black–white disparities were more pronounced in nonfatal injurious police shootings than in fatal police shootings. Overall, Black victims were less likely than white victims to die from their wound(s). Younger victims were less likely to die from their wound(s), as well as those who were unarmed. Conclusions Racial and age disparities in police shootings are likely more pronounced than previous estimates suggest. Policy implications Other states should strongly consider compiling data like that which is currently being gathered in California. Absent data on nonfatal injurious police shootings–which account for a large share of deadly force incidents–researchers and analysts must be cautious about comparing and/or ranking jurisdictions in terms of their police-involved fatality rates.

Examining Press Conference and Press Release Accounts of Canadian Police Shootings

Little research examines the communication work that public police do following police shootings. Based on an analysis of 85 press releases, press conferences, and media interviews after police shootings in Canada spanning 2010–2020, we analyse narrative techniques used in police communications. Contributing to literature on police image management, we examine patterns in these communications, and we also identify silences and absences. We argue police press conferences and press releases after police shootings are less oriented toward misinformation or agenda-setting and more toward risk aversion. Sixty-two percent of communications in our sample used “euphemisms,” which obfuscate elements of use of force, while 31% of communications were “silent” and provided no justification for or information on the shootings. For these reasons, these communications may contribute to a sense of injustice felt by families of the victims of police shootings. Our findings may give pause to police administrators and media liaison officers who should consider what message such risk-averse communications send to families of victims, as well as to the public. In conclusion, we reflect on what these findings mean for literature on police image management.

Perceived threat and officer-involved shootings: characteristics leading to fatal vs non-fatal instances

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to compare the fatality rate of Black and White subjects shot by police. This comparison is meant to explore whether officer-involved shootings (OIS) are impacted more by perceived threat or by demographic characteristics. Beyond race, contextual and officer-level variables are examined for their influence on lethal vs non-lethal police shootings.Design/methodology/approachThe study utilizes data from the Tampa Bay Times database on police shootings in Florida from 2009 through 2014. Our analysis focuses on the substantive importance of this issue, using the population of OIS in one specific state over a specified time period. The authors also including multinomial logistic regression models analyzing the impact of race, contextual and officer-level variables on the lethal outcome of OIS is clear that the police are shooting at two very different populations.FindingsAlthough Black subjects are disproportionately represented as the subjects of OIS, there was no significant difference in the lethality of such incidents based simply on race. However, when we compare Black subjects to White subjects, it is clear that the police are shooting at two very different populations. Black subjects were younger, less likely to be armed, less likely to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and less likely to have suspected or known mental health considerations than their White counterparts.Research limitations/implicationsThus, it is possible that any racialized difference in the lethality of police shootings is being suppressed because we are comparing very different groups of subjects to one another.Originality/valueThis paper is the first to examine the racial threat that officers experience past the decision to engage in violence. The authors are looking at how they shoot at minorities vs the decision to shoot at minorities.