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American Policing Under Fire: Misconduct and Reform

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Abstract

A cluster of recent police killings of African American men has sparked an unprecedented amount of public debate regarding policing in the United States. Critics and protesters have made sweeping allegations about the police; a presidential commission has been formed to study police misconduct; and reforms are being debated. These events provide a backdrop for this article’s review of recent poll data and discussion of research regarding police relations with African Americans, Latinos, and whites.

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Notes

  1. In March, 1988, approval of the LAPD’s job performance was remarkably high for all groups: 80 % for Latinos, 74 % for whites, and 64 % for blacks. Approval ratings declined substantially four days after the March 3, 1991 videotaped beating (51, 47, 26 %, respectively) and then eroded further in a March 20 poll (31, 41, 14 %, respectively) as a result of the repeated broadcast of a video of the beating (Weitzer 2002).

  2. In 2009, the vast majority of Los Angeles residents approved of the LAPD’s job performance: 68 % of blacks, 76 % of Latinos, and 81 % of whites (Rubin 2009; see also Stone et al. 2009).

  3. When asked, in a 1999 Gallup poll, whether they had ever been stopped by the police solely because of their race or ethnicity, black males aged 18–34 were much more likely to answer affirmatively (73 %) than older black males (40 %), same-age black females (38 %), and same-age white males (11 %). When asked generically about being stopped (rather than about racially-biased stops), one study found that blacks were twice as likely as whites to report being stopped in just the past year: 25 % vs. 12 %, respectively (Epp et al. 2014: 52).

  4. This database is available at: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2015/jun/01/the-counted-police-killings-us-database#.

  5. Some of these studies find that minority officers treat citizens better than white officers, while other studies find the opposite (Sklansky 2006).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sociology Department, 409 Phillips Hall, George Washington University, 801 22nd Street, NW, Washington, DC, 20052, USA

    Ronald Weitzer

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  1. Ronald Weitzer
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Correspondence to Ronald Weitzer.

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Weitzer, R. American Policing Under Fire: Misconduct and Reform. Soc 52, 475–480 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12115-015-9931-1

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