NCJ Number
227125
Journal
THE POLICE CHIEF Volume: 76 Issue: 5 Dated: May 2009 Pages: 54,57,58
Date Published
May 2009
Length
3 pages
Annotation
This article presents the results of a comparative analysis of studies conducted in Chicago and Denver on racial bias in police use of force.
Abstract
Both the Chicago study and the Denver studies demonstrated that community members showed consistent evidence of bias. Although Denver police officers, like the community members, showed evidence of bias in terms of their reaction times, the similarities between their performance and that of community members ended there. Unlike the community, Denver officers showed no bias in their ultimate decisions. Questions about whether race influences police use of force have long been of interest to criminologists and sociologists. Since 2000, the Prejudice Research Laboratory in the Psychology Department at the University of Chicago has utilized a first-person-shooter video game to investigate whether decisions to shoot at a potentially hostile target can be influenced by the target's race. The participants of the study were college students or residents in Denver and Chicago. At the request of the Denver (Colorado) Police Department (DPD), this study of potential racial bias was replicated and expanded; comparing its police officers with members of the Denver community was of particular interest to the DPD. The study consisted of police officers from the DPD, members of the Denver community, and a group of officers from 14 States across the United States. A follow-up study investigated only Denver community members and Denver police officers. This article examined the results from the three studies. Figures and notes