The Influence of the Environment on Officer-Involved Shootings

• Author: Tyler Keller,Joel Caplan,Leslie Kennedy
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10887679221129857
• Published date: 01 February 2023
• Date: 01 February 2023
• Subject Matter: Special Issue Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/10887679221129857

Homicide Studies

2023, Vol. 27(1) 97 –119

© 2022 SAGE Publications

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DOI: 10.1177/10887679221129857

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Special Issue Article

The Influence of the

Environment on Officer-

Involved Shootings

Tyler Keller1, Joel Caplan1,

and Leslie Kennedy1

Abstract

Research on officer-involved shootings has covered many methods and designs,

with a majority focusing on macro-level approaches to understanding the shooting

event. Research designs which incorporate place are limited, but what does exist

demonstrates the relevance of the micro-environment to contextualize the many

factors which give rise to the shooting event. This research further explores the

importance of the micro-environment by examining how crime generators and

attractors, conceptualized as the built environment, can be utilized to understand

where police officers are more likely to discharge their weapon. Data on police

shootings in Philadelphia, PA which occurred between 2015 and 2019, along with

data describing the environmental landscape of the city are used in conjunction

with variables previously determined to be related to shooting events. This

analysis uses a three-pronged approach to understanding the relevance of the

micro-environment in officer-involved shootings. Results indicate that the most

important predictor of police shootings are levels of violent crime. Violent

crime rates, in turn, are significantly related to the built environment. The built

environment, then, has an indirect relationship to the places where police are

most likely to discharge their weapon which is mediated through the violent crime

rate.

Keywords

officer-involved shooting, lethal force, place, built environment

1Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, USA

Corresponding Author:

Tyler Keller, Rutgers University, 123 Washington Street, Newark, NJ 07102-3094, USA.

Email: tnk23@scarletmail.rutgers.edu

1129857HSXXXX10.1177/10887679221129857Homicide StudiesKeller et al.

research-article2022

98 Homicide Studies 27(1)

Introduction

Over 40 years ago research on officer-involved shootings (OIS) began to examine the

relevance of place within cities with Fyfe (1980), who found that exposure to violence

in terms of crime rates was an important factor in police shooting rates. This research

put forth the idea that places with histories of violence are related to police shootings

because these places threaten officer and public safety. Since then, research on OIS

events within cities, particularly at the micro-level, has been understudied compared

to more macro approaches. Studies using larger units of analysis to examine OIS

events are numerous despite scholars suggesting that within-city analyses were supe-

rior to other research designs (Jacobs & O’Brien, 1998). Recent work by Klinger et al.

(2016) has renewed the within-city analysis of OIS events by examining neighborhood

violence and applying measures of segregation and economic disadvantage across

neighborhoods as control measures on the use of firearms by police. Their findings are

generally in support of Fyfe’s (1980) explanation that levels of violence are related to

the places where officers are most likely to shoot.

Despite evidence that neighborhood levels of violence appear to be the most impor-

tant predictor regarding place and OIS events, these events can, and do occur in places

with little to no criminal history which are highly affluent. These instances are rare in

their data but raise further questions about the relationship between OIS events and

place. Typically, these incidents involve off-duty officers or officers who are in the

right place at the right time; but what is it about these locations that bring an officer

and suspect together in time and place? A possible explanation unexplored by Klinger

et al. (2016) which may help explain this phenomenon is that OIS events are related to

features of the environment which attract and generate opportunities for criminal

behavior (Brantingham & Brantingham, 1995). Therefore, police shootings may have

a connection to the type of location the suspect is at. If violent criminals are attracted

to certain locations, such as robbers specializing in banks or gas stations, then those

specific locations increase in risk across the board. Likewise, in shaping the risk for

violent crime to occur, these features of the environment may also increase the risk of

an OIS event occurring, as police respond to criminal activities at these locations. That

is, if OIS events are linked to violent crime, then OIS events may also be linked to the

environmental place features associated with violent crime.

While OIS research has demonstrated the importance of place, the relevance of the

built environment, and how it shapes and creates risk for OIS events, has been under-

studied. To address the lack of environmental context in previous OIS research and

explore its utility in potentially contextualizing shooting events, this research will uti-

lize the multitude of potential crime generators and attractors within the city of

Philadelphia (e.g., bars, pawn shops, schools, parks, etc.) to specifically examine the

environmental risk of several types of gun crime across micro places of varying levels

of disadvantage and affluence. Utilizing a similar approach to Klinger et al. (2016),

this research will examine OIS events while controlling for violent crime, structural

disadvantage and the environmental risk for serious gun crime. Using block groups as

our units of analysis, the environmental risk of a violent gun crime occurring is