Does Race Matter for Police Use of Force? Evidence from 911 Calls

Abstract

What role does race have in cases of police use of force? This issue of PERCspectives on Research summarizes the paper by Rex B. Grey Professor Mark Hoekstra and Graduate Student Fellow CarlyWill Sloan, which examines how the race of officers and the race of civilians affect police use of force by using a location-by-time �xed effects approach to randomize the race of officers dispatched to over two million 911 calls in two cities. Results show white officers use force 60 percent more on average than black officers, and use gun force twice as often. Findings also show that while white and black officers use gun force at similar rates in white and racially mixed neighborhoods, white officers are �ve times as likely to use gun force in predominantly black neighborhoods. Similarly, white officers increase use of any force much more than minority officers when dispatched to more minority neighborhoods