A Bird's Eye View of Civilians Killed by Police in 2015

• Author: Geoffrey P. Alpert,Bradley A. Campbell,Justin Nix,Edward H. Byers
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12269
• Date: 01 February 2017
• Published date: 01 February 2017

RESEARCH ARTICLE

CIVILIANS KILLED BY POLICE

A Bird’s Eye View of Civilians Killed

by Police in 2015

Further Evidence of Implicit Bias

Justin Nix

Bradley A. Campbell

Edward H. Byers

University of Louisville

Georey P. Alpert

University of South Carolina and Griffith University

Research Summary

We analyzed 990 police fatal shootings using data compiled by The Washington Post

in 2015. After first providing a basic descriptive analysis of these shootings, we then

examined the data for evidence of implicit bias by using multivariate regression models

that predict two indicators of threat perception failure: (1) whether the civilian was not

attacking the officer(s) or other civilians just before being fatally shot and (2) whether

the civilian was unarmed when fatally shot. The results indicated civilians from “other”

minority groups were significantly more likely than Whites to have not been attacking

the officer(s) or other civilians and that Black civilians were more than twice as likely

as White civilians to have been unarmed.

Policy Implications

We implore the U.S. government to move forward with its publication of a national

police use-of-force database, including as much information about the officers involved

The authors would like to thank

The Washington Post

for providing them with the data and especially Amy

Brittain, David Fallis, Jeff Leen, and Ted Mellnik for their assistance while preparing this article. The authors

would also like to thank four anonymous reviewers and Hyeyoung Lim for their helpful feedback. Direct

correspondence to Justin Nix, Department of Criminal Justice, University of Louisville, 2301 S. 3rd Street,

Louisville, KY 40205 (e-mail: justin.nix@louisville.edu).

DOI:10.1111/1745-9133.12269 C2017 American Society of Criminology 309

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Research Article Civilians Killed by Police

as possible. Wefurther suggest police departments use training programs and community

activities to minimize implicit bias among their officers.

Keywords

police, deadly force, race, implicit bias

Policing in America is in the midst of a legitimacy crisis, having faced immense

scrutiny in recent years resulting in large part from several highly publicized deadly

force incidents captured on video (e.g., most recently, Keith Lamont Scott in

Charlotte, NC and Terence Crutcher in Tulsa, OK). These videos have gone “viral” on

social media and have led to unprecedented levels of public discontent with the police

(Weitzer, 2015). This discontent has fueled violence toward police officers: in July 2016

in Dallas, for example, a peaceful protest turned deadly when five officers were fatally shot

and another nine wounded.1One specific concern is that minorities are disproportionately

shot and killed by the police. For example, Black Lives Matter (n.d.) has proclaimed on

its website that “Black lives are systematically and intentionally targeted for demise” and

that “[e]very 28 hours a Black man, woman, or child is murdered by police or vigilante

law enforcement.” These statements imply that the police are overtly prejudiced toward

minorities, which is certainly possible but unlikely. The results of experimental studies,

however, have suggested that officers might be implicitly biased against minorities and more

likely to use force against them as a result (i.e., the “implicit bias” effect; see Correll, Park,

Judd, and Wittenbrink, 2002; Cox, Devine, Plant, and Schwartz, 2014; Payne, 2001). At

the same time, the results of more recent research have pointed to evidence of a “counter

bias” effect, whereby officers seem more hesitant to use force against minorities (James,

James, and Vila, 2016; James, Vila, and Klinger, 2014). Mixed findings have been produced

in prior studies examining the relationship between civilian2race and police use of deadly

force (Goldkamp, 1976; Jacobs and Britt, 1979; Klinger, Rosenfeld, Isom, and Deckard,

2015; Sorenson, Marquart, and Brock, 1993), but importantly,the focus has been on either

single cities or national-level data that have noted flaws (Swaine and Laughland, 2015;

Williams, Bowman, and Jung, 2016). Consequently, our knowledge of race and police

deadly force at the national level is limited. Although many claims have been made, three

empirical questions remain unanswered: (1) How often do civilians die by police gunfire

in the United States? (2) Among those shot and killed, were minority civilians less likely

1. Ten days later, three Baton Rouge police officers were ambushed and killed. There is growing concern

about a “war on cops,” but a recent article suggested that felonious killings of police officers do not

seem to be increasing (Maguire, Nix, and Campbell, 2016).

2. Here and throughout this article, we use the term “civilian” to refer to individuals not employed by a law

enforcement agency.

310 Criminology & Public Policy

Nix et al.

than White civilians to have been attacking the police or others? (3) Among those shot and

killed, were minority civilians more likely to have been unarmed than White citizens?

One reason for our absence of knowledge is the lack of national data available that

would allow researchers to address adequately such questions. Ironically, it was only after the

August 2014 death of Michael Brownin Ferguson, MO, that Federal Bureau of Investigation

(FBI) Director James Comey became aware that his agency does not collect reliable data

pertaining to civilians killed by the police (Comey, 2015). Although the FBI through its

Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) Program keeps a record of justifiable homicides (i.e., the

killing of a felon by a law enforcement officer in the line of duty), reporting is voluntary and

not all agencies participate. According to The Guardian,only 224agencies (or approximately

1% of all agencies) reported a killing to the FBI in 2014 (Swaine and Laughland, 2015).

Indeed, academic research findings have suggested that the FBI’s data underestimate the

prevalence of civilian deaths at the hands of police (Fyfe, 2002; Klinger, 2012b; Klinger

et al., 2015; Planty et al., 2015; Williams et al., 2016). Criminologists have implored the

U.S. government to develop a national database on officer-involved shootings (see, e.g.,

Alpert, 2015a; Fyfe, 2002; Geller and Scott, 1992; Klinger et al., 2015)—and recently

proposed bills offer promise—but for now,the state of knowledge concerning police deadly

force in the U.S. remains “a national embarrassment” (Alpert, 2015b).

Although the government has failed to provide the necessary information on police

shooting deaths, at least two media outlets have developed national data sets. The Washington

Post and The Guardian have developed repositories of reported officer-involved shootings

and other use-of-force incidents resulting in civilian deaths. These resources afford re-

searchers an opportunity previously unavailable: the ability to analyze all civilian deaths at

the hands of the police on a national scale over an extended period of time. The purpose of

the present study is twofold: The first is to analyze the data on civilians shot and killed by

police in 2015, and the second is to determine whether minority civilians shot and killed

by police were more or less likely to have been (a) attacking the police or (b) unarmed at

the time of their death. Such an analysis will allow for a more informed dialogue about the

extent and nature of civilian deaths at the hands of police in America. We believe it will also

provide a meaningful contribution to our knowledge concerning the “implicit bias” effect,

given that studies to date have relied on research carried out in laboratory settings or with

data from a single agency.

Literature Review

Police Use of Force

Police use of force is a controversial topic with a rich history. For decades, researchers have

sought to provide a better understanding of the use of force by police officers (Adams et al.,

1999; Alpert and Dunham, 1997, 2004; Bayley and Garofalo, 1989; Bittner, 1970; Fridell

and Lim, 2016; Fyfe, 1988; Klinger, 1997; Legewie and Fagan, 2016; Reiss, 1971; Westley,

1953). This line of research has generally been used to examine the issue from one of

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