TRUSTINEWS: Nonwhite and female police use force less than white male officers

Recent research led by the University of California studied the demographics and behavior of thousands of Chicago police officers and revealed how officers of different races and genders acted while on similar patrol assignments. While the results do not shed light on why these differences exist, they do suggest that diversifying U.S. police departments — which have historically been nearly all white and male — may improve police treatment of minority communities.

This study is “one of the most comprehensive and sophisticated” examinations of how officer demographics affect policing to date, says Robin Engel, a criminal justice researcher at the University of Cincinnati who was not involved in the work.

Among the study findings were that Black officers made 15.16 fewer stops, 1.93 fewer arrests and used force 0.1 fewer times than their white counterparts, on average, over the course of 100 shifts. Like their Black colleagues, Hispanic officers conducted fewer stops, made fewer arrests and used force less often than white officers, although the difference was not as stark.

Engel cautions that this study alone cannot explain why officers of different races and genders police differently.

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