Police Shooting

The Problem of Bias in Policing
From 2015-2016, 1,146 victims of police violence lost their lives. More disturbingly, however, is that 38.5% of them were minorities, mainly African Americans (Bui, Coates & Matthay, 2018). This is problematic because African Americans do not even make up 25% of the population of the U.S., according to the U.S. Census Bureau (2018). All the same African Americans are over 50% more likely to be killed by police than their demographic indicates should be an equal ratio. Why are black men more likely to be shot by police than any other demographic? James (2018) notes simply that “research on police officers has found that they tend to associate African Americans with threat” (p. 30).  Yet James (2018) has also noted that implicit bias is not the only factor in determining outcomes when police run into minorities in their line of work: other variables are impactful; simple things such as the amount of sleep the officer had the night before can reduce or inflame the officer’s implicit bias with regard to associations of African Americans and possession of weapons (James, 2018). What this suggests is that there are other conscious and unconscious elements to how an officer may handle his own implicit bias and whether he allows it to master him or whether he masters it.
Hehman, Flake and Calanchini (2018) have shown that disproportionate use of lethal force by police officers against black men has been linked with regional racial biases of residents as measured by the use of Harvard’s Project Implicit study—a study that offers participants the opportunity to take an Implicit Attitudes Test. Hehman et al. (2018) argued that the results of these tests in different parts of the country show that cultural sociological factors are part of the psychological phenomenon of implicit bias. Some researchers seek to find ways to mitigate the risk of implicit bias by advocating for the use of body cameras or by modifying procedural justice training (Nix, Campbell, Byers & Alpert, 2017), which shows that this problem is relevant. Yet, as James, Fridell and Straub (2016) discuss, most psychosocial studies focus on reducing bias without ever fully understanding where the bias comes from in the first place.
What affects the decision to shoot or not shoot is race-based and part of a feature of implicit bias in police officers that stems from cultural and psychological inputs, but it is also determined by other external factors, such as stress and the impact of physical factors (James, 2018). Racial bias is only one aspect of the situation. Stress, culture, attitudes, and in the influence of peers, media, and groups is also a factor (Bandura, 2018). Gender is also an issue, as most blacks shot by police are males, as males carry a higher threat risk for officers than females, so the perception goes (Hehman et al., 2018). Thus, the decision to shoot or not to shoot is often made in the spur of the moment based on a variety of issues. The recent case of the black security guard who was shot by police is one example of how a variety of inputs can lead to death for the black person: the black security guard had his gun drawn on the suspect; when the white police officer arrived, he saw the gun—which represents the threat of violence to the police officer—and coupled that input with the race of the person holding the gun—which also represents a threat to most officers as a result of their implicit bias (Hehman et al., 2018), and the third input was the chaos of the setting—the bar where violence had broken out. People were also shouting at the officer and though they were shouting that the man with the gun was security, it had no effect on the white officer: he was unable to communicate effectively with the security guard and so opened fire killing the black guard (Runge & Hall, 2018).
As much as one hears about it in the media, the fact is that shootings of innocent black men by police are still rare. Under 10% of men shot and killed by police in 2015 were unarmed (Nix et al., 2017). Still, this does not excuse the fact—after all 1 out of 10 shootings that should have been avoided is still one too many. Police need to find alternative solutions to mitigating the risk of violence. One solution is the use of body cameras (Nix et al., 2017). Body cameras are helpful because they alert all stakeholders that everything is being recorded and will be made available to the public upon inquiry so that the community can see exactly what happened and will hold people accountable. Officers need to understand that they are not above the law but rather are subject to the same law as everyone else. No one else in America can walk into a situation, open fire and expect to walk away scot free—i.e., shoot first and ask questions later. Officers often have to make split decisions in order to save lives: and if they see a suspect with a weapon and that suspect does not look like he is going to back down, the officer is given the authority to shoot. That is part of the job. However, there may be other ways to reduce the level of stress in the situation and prevent it from escalating to the point where people’s lives are in danger. Clearing out the area could be the first step so that the suspect is isolated and no one’s life is in danger other than the suspect and the officer—and since officers typically have body armor and can call for back-up so that they are not alone, the risk of harm to their person is reduced significantly. Instead, of shooting first and asking questions later, officers should attempt to safeguard people in the area by removing them from the scene and then deescalating the situation by getting the suspect to willingly surrender. This may take more time, patience, and skill and require more training on the part of officers—but it would be worth it if it saves the lives of black men in the end.
Body cameras would help in such a situation because they would remind the officers that everything they are doing is being recorded and will be seen. Officers can be more mindful of their own actions and less willing to enter into a situation with guns blazing. They may instead go about dealing with a suspect with more care and consideration (Nix et al., 2017). Knowing that someone else is watching or will be reviewing one’s exact actions can have a big psychological impact on a person, and this is what is needed in the case of police when they interact with black males.
Another aspect that has to be addressed is the aspect of culture (Bandura, 2018). The culture of policing should change too to ensure that officers receive the training needed to show respect for all people, including black males, regardless of the social or cultural inputs the officers have received about that demographic in the past. Law enforcement culture has to be more respectful and mindful of the rights of all individuals—and if officers feel unsafe about interacting with this demographic, they need to be kept back and not put out into the communities where they are likely to have to deal with stressful and tense situations. Officers should be taught to think first rather than to react with the gun.
In conclusion, black men are disproportionately shot by police than any other demographic in America. The Implicit Attitudes Test of Harvard has suggested that there is a correlation between the regional beliefs of communities throughout America and the views that officers in these regions have about black men and how they feel threatened by them. Bandura has shown that these beliefs are created by peer influence, media influence and group influence. Stress also plays a factor, so officers need to learn how to cope with stress, think before acting, and body cameras should be worn to ensure greater mindfulness on their part.





References
Bandura, A. (2018). Toward a psychology of human agency: Pathways and reflections. 
Perspectives on Psychological Science, 13(2), 130-136.
Bui, A. L., Coates, M. M., & Matthay, E. C. (2018). Years of life lost due to encounters
with law enforcement in the USA, 2015–2016. J Epidemiol Community Health, jech-2017.
Hehman, E., Flake, J. K., & Calanchini, J. (2018). Disproportionate use of lethal force in
policing is associated with regional racial biases of residents. Social psychological and personality science, 9(4), 393-401.
James, L. (2018). The Stability of Implicit Racial Bias in Police Officers. Police Quarterly, 21(1), 30-52.
James, L., Fridell, L., & Straub Jr, F. (2016). Implicit bias versus the Ferguson
effect. Police Chief, 83, 44-51.
Nix, J., Campbell, B. A., Byers, E. H., & Alpert, G. P. (2017). A bird's eye view of
civilians killed by police in 2015: Further evidence of implicit bias. Criminology & Public Policy, 16(1), 309-340.
Runge, E. & Hall, G. (2018). Officer shoots, kills armed security guard outside south
suburban bar. Retrieved from https://wgntv.com/2018/11/11/multiple-wounded-in-robbins-bar-shooting-police-say/
U.S. Census Bureau. (2018). Population of the United States by Race and
Hispanic/Latino Origin, Census 2000 and 2010. Retrieved from https://www.infoplease.com/us/race-population/population-united-states-race-and-hispaniclatino-origin-census-2000-and-2010