Racial Bias in Policing: Causes, Evidence, and Solutions

The Scale of the Problem: Police Violence and Racial Disparities

From 2015 to 2016, 1,146 victims of police violence lost their lives. More disturbingly, 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 United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau (2018). African Americans are nonetheless over 50% more likely to be killed by police than their share of the population would suggest in 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 encounter minorities in the line of work: other variables are impactful. Simple factors such as the amount of sleep an officer had the night before can reduce or inflame that officer's implicit bias with regard to associations between African Americans and the possession of weapons (James, 2018). What this suggests is that there are both conscious and unconscious elements shaping how an officer may handle his own implicit bias — and whether he allows it to master him, or whether he masters it.

Implicit Bias and Its Cultural Roots

Hehman, Flake, and Calanchini (2018) have shown that disproportionate use of lethal force by police officers against Black men has been linked to regional racial biases of residents, as measured by Harvard's Project Implicit — a study that offers participants the opportunity to take an Implicit Attitudes Test. Hehman et al. (2018) argued that the results of these tests across different parts of the country demonstrate that cultural and 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 confirms that this problem is both current and consequential. Yet, as James, Fridell, and Straub (2016) discuss, most psychosocial studies focus on reducing bias without ever fully understanding where the bias originates in the first place.

Situational Factors in Police Shootings

What affects the decision to shoot or not shoot is race-based and rooted in implicit bias in police officers — a bias that stems from cultural and psychological inputs — but it is also determined by other external factors, such as stress and physical circumstances (James, 2018). Racial bias is only one aspect of the situation. Stress, culture, attitudes, and the influence of peers, media, and groups are also factors (Bandura, 2018). Gender is likewise an issue: most Black individuals shot by police are male, as males are generally perceived by officers to carry a higher threat risk than females (Hehman et al., 2018).

Thus, the decision to shoot or not shoot is often made in the heat of the moment based on a convergence of inputs. The case of a Black security guard who was shot by police illustrates how multiple factors can lead to a fatal outcome. The security guard had his gun drawn on a suspect; when a white police officer arrived, he saw the gun — representing a threat of violence — and coupled that perception with the race of the person holding it, which, as a result of implicit bias, also registered as a threat (Hehman et al., 2018). A third input was the chaos of the setting: a bar where violence had broken out. Bystanders were shouting at the officer, and although they were telling him the armed man was a security guard, this had no effect. The officer was unable to communicate effectively with the security guard and opened fire, killing him (Runge & Hall, 2018).

The Reality of Unarmed Shootings and Accountability

As much as it is discussed in the media, fatal police shootings of innocent Black men remain statistically rare in absolute terms. Fewer than 10% of men shot and killed by police in 2015 were unarmed (Nix et al., 2017). Still, this does not excuse the problem — one in ten shootings that should have been avoided is still one too many. Police must 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, allowing communities to see exactly what happened and holding officers accountable. Officers need to understand that they are not above the law but subject to the same law as everyone else. While officers sometimes have to make split-second decisions to save lives — and if a suspect has a weapon and shows no sign of backing down, the officer may be authorized to shoot — there are other ways to reduce stress and prevent situations from escalating to the point where lives are endangered.

Clearing the area could be a first step, isolating the suspect so that no bystanders' lives are in danger. Since officers typically have body armor and can call for backup, the risk to their person is also significantly reduced. Rather than shooting first and asking questions later, officers should attempt to safeguard people in the area, remove them from the scene, and then deescalate by encouraging the suspect to surrender voluntarily. This may require more time, patience, and skill — and more robust training — but it would be worth it if it saves lives.

Conclusion

Black men are disproportionately shot by police compared to any other demographic in America. The Implicit Attitudes Test developed at Harvard has suggested that there is a correlation between the regional beliefs of communities throughout America and the views that officers in these regions hold about Black men and the threat they perceive them to represent. Bandura's work has shown that these beliefs are shaped by peer influence, media influence, and group influence. Stress also plays a role, which means officers need to learn to cope with stress, to think before acting, and to wear body cameras in order to ensure greater mindfulness and accountability in their interactions with the public.

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, F., Jr. (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