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Wednesday, January 21, 2015

How Science Is Helping America Tackle Police Racism

Demonstrators march in New York on Dec. 13, 2014, during the Justice for All rally.

The police killings of several unarmed black men in recent months have sparked protests nationwide demanding justice, heightening tensions between police departments and communities. In one narrative, these deaths represent a pattern of racist police officers using unnecessary lethal force against black communities. But that story—of bad people doing bad things—is much too simple, says Phillip Goff, a social psychologist at UCLA.
Goff is the co-founder and president of the Center for Policing Equity, one of the only organizations of its kind that conducts research in the interest of ensuring accountability and equality in race and gender in law enforcement agencies nationwide. More than 70 social scientists, social psychologists, and neuroscientists from around the country do research in collaboration with the center. The hallmark of CPE is in bringing the data-driven tools of the scientific method.
“We think of this as a movement toward evidence-based social justice,” Goff said.
The issues surrounding equality and policing are undoubtedly complex, involving political, social, and economic forces intertwined with America’s legacy of racism. The problems are hard, but not impossible, and Goff and his colleagues believe science can be part of the solution.

Changing Policing With Research

The center works something like a consulting firm. If a particular police department is worried about possible inequalities in how it enforces the law—disproportionately pulling over more minority drivers, let’s say—they can ask the center’s researchers to help them collect data on traffic stops, demographics, and whatever else they need. (To ensure impartiality, the center offers its services without charge; it’s supported by a variety of philanthropic foundations, including the National Science Foundation and private organizations.) CPE then uses statistical modeling and other methods to identify the causes of problems and to propose concrete solutions.
For example, the center has assessed racial and gender biases in the Las Vegas police department and, in particular, how often officers used force when apprehending suspects. The researchers conducted surveys to determine if there were any correlations between racial attitudes of individual officers and how they did their jobs. They found that officers with poor morale—for whom being a police officer wasn’t an important part of their identity—had the greatest tendency to be biased. Those officers resented diversity training, often feeling like they were being accused of racism, the report said. To fix these problems, the researchers recommended several new policies, such as integrating diversity training with other kinds of training—and use-of-force training, in particular—and collecting demographic data on pedestrian stops to better identify patterns of bias.
The study found that given the large size of the department, officers didn’t rely on force too much. But thanks to the new data, the researchers confirmed what officer John Farrell long suspected: Officers tended to use force following foot chases. Farrell is a 26-year veteran of the Las Vegas police department and the head of the office of quality assurance, which oversaw the collection of use-of-force data. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that after running down a suspect, officers’ heart rates skyrocket as they’re pumped up on adrenaline. In the heat of the moment, an officer is more aggressive and more likely to use force when apprehending a suspect.
To counteract this tendency and prevent unnecessary force, the department instituted a new rule: The officer chasing on foot is not allowed to touch the suspect. In most cases, Goff explains, the suspect isn’t at risk of escaping, because foot pursuits usually end when the suspect gets tired and gives up. Police backup is often right behind the officer chasing on foot.
After the new rules were instituted in 2012, the department saw about a 10 percent decrease in use of force in 2013, dropping from roughly 1,000 instances to about 900, Farrell says. The decline meant there were 100 fewer chances for someone to get hurt or killed. The results are promising, but the department won’t know if the improvements have stuck until it finishes compiling its 2014 data.
This kind of policy change can directly affect racial disparities, Goff says. Most foot chases happen in poorer communities, which tend to have more minorities (suspects in wealthier areas are more likely to be white and be in cars). So, if officers use force less often after foot chases, there will be fewer instances of excessive force involving minorities.
Another one of CPE’s jobs is to help officers become aware of their own biases. For example, one of the recommendations in the Las Vegas study was to educate officers at the executive level about the science of implicit racism—unconscious biases shaped by societal and cultural prejudices and stereotypes.

Unconscious Racism

Three decades of research in social psychology and neuroscience reveals that even people who say they strongly believe in equality and fairness still show significant patterns of implicit bias, says David Amodio, a neuroscientist at New York University, who isn’t affiliated with CPE. After seeing such prevalence of prejudicein numerous laboratory experiments, the recent deaths of black men and youths at the hands of white police officers doesn’t surprise him. “It’s a sobering corroboration of our research,” he said.
Unfortunately, Amodio says, research also shows that implicit bias is difficult to weed out. Experiments in which volunteers were trained to erase their implicit bias—for example, by showing them faces of prominent black people to create positive associations with black faces—showed that the effects were temporary. Probably the most effective way to fight bias isn’t in trying to eliminate it, he says, but in controlling how it affects behavior.
Of course, that’s easier said than done. While the science of implicit bias is fascinating, applying it to the real world is a whole other matter, Goff says. Experiments are done in highly controlled settings, far removed from the complex situations in real life—especially during police interactions, when emotions run high.
Still, one way to combat implicit bias is to make people aware that it exists and how it manifests itself. In the Las Vegas case, the researchers recommended that higher-ranking officers be taught the science behind such bias and how it can influence behavior. For example, the report points out what’s called stereotype threat, in which trying not to be racist leads to somewhat racist behaviors. Let’s say you’re white and you really don’t want to be seen as racist. In doing so, you may inadvertently avoid eye contact with a black person, avoid that person all together, or do other nervous-looking things, which adversely affects that person.
The science of implicit bias is an integral part of CPE’s work, but what has been more important is simply bringing an evidence-based approach to law enforcement, Goff says. Hewing to data and research can be a catalyst for change, he says. Collecting demographic data and surveying a community’s attitudes and concerns can teach a department about the people it’s supposed to serve. This exchange of information gives people a stake in the process, improving the often-distrustful relationship with the police.
This evidence-based approach also sidesteps questions of character, Goff says. Because of the focus on objective data, the discussion doesn’t devolve into character assassinations in which officers are accused of racism and bigotry, and community members are accused of being thugs. This kind of reasoned approach helps bring people together toward a common understanding. “Research can be a lever for social and cultural change,” he said.

Show Me The Data

The center, which was founded in 2008, has only worked with law enforcement agencies that have sought help. Goff’s team has interacted with at least 20 police departments nationwide, including those in Los Angeles, St. Louis, Baltimore, Denver, and Chicago. In light of the Eric Garner case, Goff declined to say whether he was working with the New York Police Department, but said that he’s in constant contact with law enforcement officials around the country.
Goff is spearheading a recent effort called the justice database to create a national, standardized collection of data on police interactions. “We have literally no data—zero data—on police behavior on a national level,” he said. And that’s a frightening prospect, he says.
Individual agencies keep track of some information, but not all the kinds of data researchers might need to identify potential bias. Each agency also records the data in their own way, which makes it nearly impossible to compare patterns in one city with another. By including demographic data, information on factors such as housing patterns, unemployment, and healthcare, a database would give researchers a better understanding of the underlying cause of racial disparities in law enforcement—and how much of those inequalities are in fact due to bias by the police force, according to Goff.
For example, although the Las Vegas police department has always collected some data, they focused on crime rates, and didn’t gather numbers on demographics or various types of police interactions—such as exactly when officers used force, Farrell says. Now, after retiring from the police force, Farrell works for CPE, traveling around the country to talk to law enforcement agencies about the justice database and drum up support and participation. Being data-driven is the future trend, he says. “Ultimately, that’s the direction that all law enforcement is heading toward.”

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