The challenge persists: reduce systematic police violence and racism
By: J Kruijt
Tags: Data Journalism

The societal problem regarding the United States (US) police shootings is not solved in the past five years. Numerous people became victims of police shootings. Among these victims, racial disparity is visible: Nonwhite people run a greater risk to be shot in a police shooting than White people do.

December 10th, 2020

Casey Goodson Jr., a 23-year-old black man was shot on the 4th of December 2020 after visiting the dentist. ’His death was witnessed by his 72-year-old grandmother and two toddlers’, said the family’s lawyer. ’Casey is not alleged to have committed any crimes, has no criminal background, and was not the target of any investigation.’ A grief episode on which the congresswoman J. Beatty comments: ’The circumstances surrounding his tragic death are upsetting and extremely unsettling because too many black men in our community are dying or are the victims of unjustifiable, excessive force from the very people sworn to protect and serve all of us.’

Casey’s fatal police shooting incident is just one out of 6401 incidents reported since 2015. Some cases may be more ’decent’ than others. Yet, all cases were accompanied by mourning from relatives, regardless of gender, age, and race.

The US is unique in its kind because policing in the US kills far more people than policing in any other democracy. How the police shootings changed throughout the period of 2015 until 2019 is investigated based on data by the Washington Post. The Washington Post started to log the fatal shootings because according to them, the FBI inadequately logs barely half of the fatal shootings. A data-driven investigation explored the current status of fatal police shootings and racism.

Nationwide: Shooting some facts

On average, victims of police shootings are 36 years old. Most of them are men (95.2 %) and just some women (4.75 %). The highest victim rate is found in New Mexico. Here, 122 police shooting victims are reported for every million inhabitants during the past five years. The map (figure 1) also reveals that no state is excluded from police shooting victims.

Note. Should be interactive (see Notebook)

A factor that may affect the occurrence of police shootings is the increased fear among the police in terms of daily risk. Police officers often feel understaffed and insufficiently backed up. However, no relationship was found between the number of police workforce per capita within a state and the number of victims. Thus, although causal claims are hard to substantiate, no effect on the number of police shooting incidents is expected when more or fewer cops are deployed.

Nevertheless, the creeping worry of risk and insufficient support affects the actions police undertake. The moment a police officer pulls the trigger is often an emotional action rather than a rational action. This results in a fear-induced action that may take away lives that matter. And in many cases, police officers do regret the shootings.

A police officer makes his way to the funeral of a police shooting victim.

Downward trend: Perchance…

When considering the yearly incidents, then the statistics look promising since a decline is visible (Figure 2). The number of people killed in a police shooting dropped from 965 victims in 2015 to 858 victims in 2019. Yet, this decline is rather slow. But the observation that the number is slowly declining is already an important step in the right direction.

Note. Should be interactive to see exact numbers (see Notebook)

A matter of race?

Racial inequality and injustice are widely discussed. It is known that US policing plays a crucial role in maintaining the structural inequalities in society. For young men of color, police force is among the leading causes of death. The police shooting data confirms these notions: people of color are more often shot when encountering the number of incidents per million throughout the last five years (Figure 3). This while the crime by race is similar to the national distribution of race.

Note. Should be interactive to see exact numbers (see Notebook)

Furthermore, figure 3 shows that the number of incidents for each race remained more or less stable, except for the Natives. Here, a noteworthy spike is visible between 2015 and 2017. This could be caused by a movement called Native Lives Matter that was established in 2014. This movement fights for criminal justice and racial equality and focuses especially on Hispanics. In the years after 2014, rigid demonstrations were frequently organized, causing the police to intervene. Here, various Hispanics who fought for equality lost their life in police shootings.

Likelihood compared to White

Overall, the incidents reveal that on average, the likelihood of being shot by the police was higher among the Black, Hispanic, and Native population in comparison to the White population (Figure 4). On the other hand, Asians and people of mixed races are less likely to be shoot. Asian Americans may benefit from the positive stereotype that prevails. Generally, American Asians are seen as successful, responsible, and caring people. Accordingly, police officers possibly see them as less threatening. Nevertheless, the all-embracing pattern reveals that Nonwhite people are almost 1.5 times more likely to be shot by the police compared to White people.

Summarizing, policing is an unpredictable line of work. Police officers have to make crucial decisions within split seconds. Data reveals that the number of US fatal police shooting incidents just slowly declines. Therefore, arguing that the US did not find an effective way yet to make policing practices less deadly while still maintaining order.

Moreover, despite the effort (e.g., awareness programs, etc) and emerging technologies (e.g., computer-driven policing, body cameras, etc), the racial disparity continues to exist. More often, police officers express that they are aware of the racial disparity of shootings. However, this does not alter their behavior. Probably because the racial disparity in police shootings is caused by a subconscious process that perceives Nonwhites as a greater threat. Thus, arguing that action is needed at a deeper psychological level to overcome the race gap. However, science has not found the best-practices for police officers to reduce the worrisome bias.

Accordingly, the suffering regarding fatal police shootings persists: ’Much more must be done to address and eradicate the underlying causes of the racism and racial injustice’, said Wilson, member of the United States House of Representatives. However, in the end, ’police shootings are not just a black issue, a Hispanic issue. This is an American issue that we should all care about’, said Obama.