Examining the Impact of the Freddie Gray Unrest on Perceptions of the Police

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12404
• Author: Sean Wire,David Weisburd,Clair White
• Published date: 01 November 2018
• Date: 01 November 2018

RESEARCH ARTICLE

FREDDIE GRAY UNREST

Examining the Impact of the Freddie Gray

Unrest on Perceptions of the Police

Clair White

University of Wyoming

David Weisburd

Sean Wire

George Mason University

Research Summary

Taking advantage of a large residential survey that was ongoing in Baltimore, Mary-

land, during the riots surrounding the death of Freddie Grayin 2015, in this study, we

examined changes in attitudes of procedural justice and police legitimacy before and

after the events occurred. We found little change in measures of obligation to obey the

law, trustworthiness of the police, and proceduraljustice among residents of Baltimore.

Policy Implications

The police are facing a challenging period of turmoil and reform as incidents of police use

of force against minorities continue to draw national attention. Our findings suggest,

however, that these macro-level events may have little immediate impact on views

of police legitimacy and procedural justice, as contrasted with longer term historical

relationships between the police and the public. We argue that more research is needed

to understand broader societal factors that shape people’s perceptions of the police as

law enforcement and policy makers search for policies and programs to build trust with

minority communities.

Keywords

crisis of police legitimacy, procedural justice, attitudes of police, Baltimore, Freddie

Gray

This work was funded by the National Institutes of Health (grant number 5R01DA032639–03, 2012). Direct

correspondence to Clair White, Department of Criminal Justice and Sociology, University of Wyoming, 1000 E.

University Ave., Laramie, WY 82070 (e-mail: cwhite41@uwyo.edu).

DOI:10.1111/1745-9133.12404 C2018 American Society of Criminology 829

Criminology & Public Policy rVolume 17 rIssue 4

Research Article Freddie Gray Unrest

In recent years, several events have highlighted negative tensions in the relationship be-

tween law enforcement and minority communities. The controversial police shooting

of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri,led to protests and civil unrest. Similarly, the

death of Eric Garner in New York, New York; Laquan McDonald in Chicago, Illinois; and

Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, demonstrated this tension to full effect.

One of these events took place in Baltimore, Maryland, on April 12, 2015, during which

police arrested Freddie Gray Jr., a young Black man, for carrying a switchblade knife. Video

of the arrest showed Gray being “dragged” to a police van “seeming limp and screaming

in pain” (Stolberg and Babcock, 2015). On April 18, protests began outside the Baltimore

Police Department in the Western district as the young man remained in a coma, and the

next day, on April 19, Freddie Gray died as a result of a spinal injury that occurred while

in custody. Protests continued throughout Baltimore after Gray’s death and peaked with

rioting, violence, and the burning of a CVS Pharmacy and local senior center. The next

day the National Guard was called in and a citywide curfew was enforced. A week later,the

medical examiner ruled the death a homicide and the six officers involved in the arrest were

charged with criminal offenses, including manslaughter and second-degree murder.

In the weeks and months that followed, events continued to unfold surrounding the

death of Freddie Gray: The Department of Justice announced an investigation of the

Baltimore City Police Department, and the commissioner was fired. Eventually, the court

cases of the first two officers ended in acquittals and all the charges against the remaining

officers were dropped. Furthermore, there was a large spike in violent crime with more than

55 murders during the month of May; the city saw violence and murder rates in the summer

at levels higher than the past 40 years.

Scholars and law enforcement are working to understand and respond to these events

from a variety of perspectives. Issues ranging from the use of deadly force by police officers,

particularly against minorities; the relationship between de-policing and increased crime;

questions of police legitimacy and procedural justice; and discussions of racial injustice

and equal treatment in the criminal justice system more broadly have all been invoked

as either explanations for, or potential solutions to, the increased tensions between the

police and the public. Based on the events in Baltimore and elsewhere, many commentators

have concluded that minority communities are deeply affected by these highly publicized

examples of police violence (Weitzer, 2015). More generally, politicians, the media, and

scholars have declared that the United States is experiencing a crisis of police legitimacy as a

result of these events (Cook, 2015; Gest, 2016; Jones, 2015; Kochel, 2017; Mellman,2015;

Nix and Pickett, 2017; Weitzer, 2015; White and Fradella, 2016; Wolfe and Nix, 2016).

The crisis of police legitimacy was a central element in developing the President’sTask

Forceon 21st Centur y Policing,which was established in 2015 as a response to “recent events

that have exposed rifts in the relationships between the local police and the communities

they protect and serve” (p. 1). This notion of crisis is based on the protesting, and in some

instances rioting, that has followed these events. The amount of unrest that has occurred

830 Criminology & Public Policy