A new study, published in the National Bureau of Economic Research this month, undercuts the widespread perception that police killings of civilians are racially biased.
“It is the most surprising result of my career” Roland G. Fryer — the study’s author and the youngest African American to receive tenure at Harvard — told The New York Times.
The study examined more than a thousand shootings, including non-fatal ones, in 10 major police departments in Texas, Florida, and California over a period of five years, systematically coding police officer’s responses to specific incidents (Did the officer shoot before or after a possible attack? How many police officers were at the scene? Were they black, white?).
Fryer found that racial differences do exist, and can be striking, in police interactions with civilians. Blacks, Hispanics, and other minorities are 50 times more likely to have an encounter with police which involves use of force. This means they are more likely to be stopped and frisked, handcuffed, pushed to the ground, pepper sprayed, or pointed a gun at.
However, when it comes to the most lethal use of force — officer involved shootings — Fryer found no evidence of racial disparity.
These startling results contradict the widespread belief, relayed by many racial justice activists, that black people are “systematically” and “intentionally” targeted by police forces.
The study comes in the wake of several high profile cases of questionable uses of force — Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Philando Castile in Minnesota, Walter L. Scott in North Charleston, Eric Garner in Staten Island, all of them caught on video — that triggered nationwide emotional response and revived the conversation on race and police brutality in America.
That is not to say that the general public’s view of racism in policing is inaccurate or unfounded, however. To date, very few police departments across the country collect data on lower level uses of force or hold police officers accountable for misuse of these tactics (such as tasing or using truncheons against suspects). The study is also silent on whether race plays a role in the “police officer’s dilemma”: the tense moment when he or she makes the decision to fire on a suspect.
But at a time when the nation’s debate on racial bias in police shootings is virtually data-free, these findings challenge the “us vs them” narrative underwriting arguments for police reform.
