Do White Police Officers Unfairly Target Black Suspects?

Using a unique data set we link the race of police officers who kill suspects with the race of those who are killed across the United States. We have data on a total of 2,706 fatal police killings for the years 2013 to 2015. This is 1,333 more killings by police than is provided by the FBI data on justifiable police homicides. We conducted three tests of discrimination. The results of these tests are different. In the first test we find some evidence that white officers are more likely to kill a black suspect who is later found to be unarmed than they are to kill an unarmed white suspect. However, this result could not be confirmed using a fixed effects model on panel data aggregated to the city level. In the second test, we find that white police officers are no more likely to kill an unarmed black suspect than are black or Hispanic officers. The results of this test are confirmed by the panel data version of the test. The third discrimination test indicated that black suspects, whether armed or not, are no more likely to be killed by a white officer than they are to be killed by black or Hispanic officers. Similarly, Hispanic suspects are no more likely to be killed by white offices than officers of other races. These results are also confirmed by panel data analyses. We find that when there is more than one officer on the scene, unarmed black suspects are not more likely to be killed by white police officers than unarmed white suspects. This could be evidence supporting a policy of reducing the number of officers working alone. Also, we find no evidence that body cameras affect either the number of police killings or the racial composition of those killings.

Police-involved Deaths and the Impact on Homicide Rates in the Post-Ferguson Era: A Study of 44 U.S. Cities

This study investigated whether homicides increased after protested police-involved deaths, focusing on the period after Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson in August 2014. It also tests for effects of legal cynicism by comparing effects in homicide and aggravated assault on the assumption that reporting of the latter is discretionary and police abuses may make communities reluctant to notify police. Using FBI data from 44 U.S. cities, homicide and assault rates from 2011 to 2019 were analyzed using an interrupted time series design and combined in a meta-analysis to calculate pooled effects. A meta-regression tested effect moderators including external investigations and city/county sociodemographic characteristics. With a conservative threshold of p ≤ .01, 21 of the 44 cities experienced a significant increase and one had a significant decrease. The pooled effect was a 26.1% increase in the homicide (99% CI: 15.3% to 36.8%). Aggravated assaults increased above baseline, though the effect was 15.2 percentage points smaller (99% CI: –26.7 to –3.6) than the effect in homicides. When outcomes were measured as percent change, there were no significant effect moderators, but when measured as absolute change, homicides increased to a greater extent when the death was subject to external investigation and in cities with higher Black populations, poverty rates, and baseline homicide rates. The findings suggest that protested police-involved deaths led to an increase in homicides and other violence due to the distrust fomented within the very communities whom police are meant to protect.

Incidence of Tension Pneumothorax in Police Officers Feloniously Killed in the Line of Duty: A Ten-Year Retrospective Analysis

Background: According to US military data, tension pneumothorax (TPx) is the second leading cause of possibly preventable combat death after isolated extremity hemorrhage. The purpose of this study was to determine whether TPx similarly represents a significant cause of possibly preventable death in police officers.Methods: FBI data for the years 1998 through 2007 were reviewed. Cases were included if officers were on-duty at the time of fatal injury, and died within one hour from time of wounding from penetrating torso trauma. After case identification, letters were sent to the departments of victim officers requesting autopsy reports.Results: One hundred and eight victim officers met inclusion criteria. Four charts were excluded due to inability to re-identify officers. Departmental response rate was 83.7%. Autopsy reports were provided for 60 officers (57.7%). All officers died from gunshot wounds. No coroner specifically identified TPx as either a direct cause of death or a contributing factor (95% CI, 0.00%-5.96%).Conclusion: In contrast to the military experience, TPx appears to be a rare cause of possibly preventable death in police officers. Further study of non-fatal “near miss” events will be required to determine the actual need for law enforcement-specific medical training in the recognition and management of TPx.

The Effect of Education on Crime: Evidence from Prison Inmates, Arrests, and Self-Reports

We estimate the effect of education on participation in criminal activity using changes in state compulsory schooling laws over time to account for the endogeneity of schooling decisions. Using Census and FBI data, we find that schooling significantly reduces the probability of incarceration and arrest. NLSY data indicate that our results are caused by changes in criminal behavior and not differences in the probability of arrest or incarceration conditional on crime. We estimate that the social savings from crime reduction associated with high school graduation (for men) is about 14–26 percent of the private return.

The Incarceration of Minority Youth

Minority youth are being incarcerated in public juvenile correctional facilities at rates three to four times that of whites. Their numbers are growing even though overall rates of serious youth crime are declining. FBI data and self-report data indicate that minority youth are somewhat more likely than white youngsters to be involved in serious crime but not to the extent that generally has been assumed. Recent research suggests that minority youth are more likely to be arrested and charged with serious crimes than comparably delinquent white youth. Although further research on these issues is imperative, it is also crucial that public officials begin testing out new strategies to reduce the tragic trend of ever more minority children growing up behind bars.