A seminal piece in our understanding of how high-profle cases of police violence can affect communities, Desmond, Papachristos, and Kirk (2016), found that resident calls to the police via 911 significantly declined after the beating of Frank Jude. These effects were especially prevalent in primarily Black neighborhoods. In this study, we used an interrupted time series design to replicate the original results in a different city using a fatal incident of police violence. We also extended the methods of original study by further disaggregating the follow-up efects to include officer-initiated events, which capture more discretionary activity for patrol officers. Our results confirm the original findings, with resident calls to 911 declining in majority-Black neighborhoods after a deadly incident of police violence, signifying a decay in community trust and legitimacy. Importantly, we also fnd an immediate and striking decline in officer-initiated activity after the same incident in majority-Black neighborhoods. Conversely, White neighborhoods experienced a slight increase. This study reinforces and adds further context to a growing body of research that explains how incidents of police violence can affect the actions of community residents and the police, including how we conceptualize and measure the concept of “de-policing.”

There is tremendous controversy across the United States (and beyond) when a police officer uses deadly force against an unarmed citizen, but often the conversation is devoid of contextual details. These details matter greatly as a matter of law and organizational legitimacy. In this short book, authors Jon Shane and Zoë Swenson offer a comprehensive analysis of the first study to use publicly available data to reveal the context in which an officer used deadly force against an unarmed citizen. Although any police shooting, even a justified shooting, is not a desired outcome—often termed "lawful but awful" in policing circles—it is not necessarily a crime. The results of this study lend support to the notion that being unarmed does not mean "not dangerous," in some ways explaining why most police officers are not indicted when such a shooting occurs. The study’s findings show that when police officers used deadly force during an encounter with an unarmed citizen, the officer or a third person was facing imminent threat of death or serious injury in the vast majority of situations. Moreover, when police officers used force, their actions were almost always consistent with the accepted legal and policy principles that govern law enforcement in the overwhelming proportion of encounters (as measured by indictments). Noting the dearth of official data on the context of police shooting fatalities, Shane and Swenson call for the U.S. government to compile comprehensive data so researchers and practitioners can learn from deadly force encounters and improve practices. They further recommend that future research on police shootings should examine the patterns and micro-interactions between the officer, citizen, and environment in relation to the prevailing law. The unique data and analysis in this book will inform discussions of police use of force for researchers, policymakers, and students involved in criminal justice, public policy, and policing.

Power corrupts, and absolute power will absolutely corrupt the police. The American Founders understood the importance of limiting governmentÕs power, thereby putting in place balances and checks to achieve it. The police have a lot of power: as you walk or drive, they can stop, detain, arrest, assault, vandalize, and even kill you with impunity. With the vast resources at the command of the police, itÕs easy to see how even a humble person can become intoxicated with the powers granted the police. Police Violence outlines the origins of the police, and how those origins, certain behaviors, and other factors explain the deaths of people like Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Samuel Dubose, Walter Scott and many others. The U.S. media has extensively reported police violence, but analysts have offered little information on why it happens or ideas for prevention. This groundbreaking book takes you on an honest intellectual public health journey while staying true to the realities of the issue for the everyday reader.

One of the most hotly debated subjects in current events is the use of force by police personnel. In recent years, protests have taken place over most of the United States after several high-profile cases in which excessive force during arrests was claimed. This volume examines opinions surrounding police action in the United States and abroad, such as arguments in favor of or against controversial policies such as stop-and-frisk. Through this wide spectrum of experiences, students are encouraged to reach their own conclusions using the information they have read and synthesized.

“A remarkable book.”—Malcolm Gladwell, San Francisco Chronicle Deaths of civilians at the hands of on-duty police are in the national spotlight as never before. How many killings by police occur annually? What circumstances provoke police to shoot to kill? Who dies? The lack of answers to these basic questions points to a crisis in American government that urgently requires the attention of policy experts. When Police Kill is a groundbreaking analysis of the use of lethal force by police in the United States and how its death toll can be reduced. Franklin Zimring compiles data from federal records, crowdsourced research, and investigative journalism to provide a comprehensive, fact-based picture of how, when, where, and why police resort to deadly force. Of the 1,100 killings by police in the United States in 2015, he shows, 85 percent were fatal shootings and 95 percent of victims were male. The death rates for African Americans and Native Americans are twice their share of the population. Civilian deaths from shootings and other police actions are vastly higher in the United States than in other developed nations, but American police also confront an unusually high risk of fatal assault. Zimring offers policy prescriptions for how federal, state, and local governments can reduce killings by police without risking the lives of officers. Criminal prosecution of police officers involved in killings is rare and only necessary in extreme cases. But clear administrative rules could save hundreds of lives without endangering police officers. “Roughly 1,000 Americans die each year at the hands of the police...The civilian body count does not seem to be declining, even though violent crime generally and the on-duty deaths of police officers are down sharply...Zimring’s most explosive assertion—which leaps out...—is that police leaders don’t care...To paraphrase the French philosopher Joseph de Maistre, every country gets the police it deserves.” —Bill Keller, New York Times “If you think for one second that the issue of cop killings doesn’t go to the heart of the debate about gun violence, think again. Because what Zimring shows is that not only are most fatalities which occur at the hands of police the result of cops using guns, but the number of such deaths each year is undercounted by more than half!...[A] valuable and important book...It needs to be read.” —Mike Weisser, Huffington Post

Police use of force has received substantial recognition from scholars, especially the impact that place dynamics play in shaping force incidents. The research surrounding use of force has focused mainly on individual and situational variables and what is limited in past research is the consideration of the event setting in accounting for the influence of different variables on police use of force. For example, prior research has demonstrated the significant influence of situational factors such as suspect resistance while ecological and setting factors such as residential instability, concentrated disadvantage, and crime have not been given similar attention. Yet, police use of force may vary in different areas characterized by higher levels of crime and concentrated disadvantage. This suggests that residents who live in high crime areas may be exposed to more frequent or more severe forms of force. The primary objective of this study is to understand the variation in police use of force within census tracts and at street segments. By drawing on police use of force reports, two analytical procedures are undertaken to measure the link between force incidents and community and street dynamics. The first model examines the frequency of force using a two-level negative binomial regression. The analyses show that calls for service, crime incidents, and nonresidential land uses are likely driving variation in the force frequency at street segments. The results at the level-two unit of analysis (census tracts) demonstrate that the odds of using force become significantly higher in commercial, concentrated disadvantage, and violent crime tracts. The second model seeks to analyze the severity of force. A three-level multivariate analysis is applied to account for the spatial nesting of force encounters within both streets and tracts. Results demonstrate that street- and neighborhood-level dynamics such as violent calls for service, violent crime incidents, and commercial land uses elicit higher levels of force. Extralegal factors such as suspect race and resistance persisted as the most powerful predictors of levels of force even after incorporating the context variables. Findings highlight the important role that micro places play in understanding the multivariate variables affecting police use of force at different levels of aggregation. Furthermore, the study concludes that it is useful to disaggregate crime and calls for service events into different types in an effort to identify their relation to police use of force types.

Combining firsthand accounts from activists with the research of scholars and reflections from artists, Policing the Planet traces the global spread of the broken-windows policing strategy, first established in New York City under Police Commissioner William Bratton. It's a doctrine that has vastly broadened police power the world over-to deadly effect. With contributions from #BlackLivesMatter cofounder Patrisse Cullors, Ferguson activist and Law Professor Justin Hansford, Director of New York-based Communities United for Police Reform Joo-Hyun Kang, poet Martn Espada, and journalist Anjali Kamat, as well as articles from leading scholars Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Robin D. G. Kelley, Naomi Murakawa, Vijay Prashad, and more, Policing the Planet describes ongoing struggles from New York to Baltimore to Los Angeles, London, San Juan, San Salvador, and beyond.