White police officers are not more likely to shoot minorities (cameras, reader)

[rjshae]

Note: I'm posting this here because the study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

https://phys.org/news/2019-07-white-...inorities.html

A study by researchers at Michigan State University and the University of Maryland showed that in police shooting cases, there was no significant difference in whether a suspect is shot, based on the race of the officer or the suspect. I.e. black officers are as likely as white officers to shoot a suspect, whether that suspect is black or white. The primary driving factor in police shootings is the crime rate, with most targets actively attacking police or civilians.

It's an interesting finding, and hopefully there will be further follow-up studies.

[SoCal_Native]

Washington Post had an article that an unarmed black man is just as likely to get struck by lightening than he is to be shot by a cop. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graph...ice-shootings/

[rjshae]

We probably need another study of non-lethal violence and see if that differs. I'm not sure how you'd capture that accurately, though.

[urbex]

Originally Posted by rjshae

It's an interesting finding, and hopefully there will be further follow-up studies.

Much more likely that it will be discredited and buried under the guise of being racist.

[rjshae]

Originally Posted by urbex

Much more likely that it will be discredited and buried under the guise of being racist.

Well I figured it could be subject to confirmation bias by readers, but it's a good start on a scientific study of the topic. The finding about mental illness is also useful for a potential follow up.

[Harry Hemi]

Suspicious findings. I would hope that all of the departments were perfectly honest when giving them this data. Usually departments are pretty tight lipped when it comes to these stats.
Also the reports would have to be fully honest. There are too many instances where officers fabricate reports saying the perps attacked them when the cameras dispute the claims. And Im talking instances of all races not just black.

The vast majority—between 90% and 95% - of the civilians shot by officers were actively attacking police or other citizens when they were shot. Ninety percent also were armed with a weapon when they were shot.

50% actively attacked the officers? 90% Armed with a weapon? Yeah right. Im going to say many of these departments skewed the reports to justify the shootings, otherwise they would be liable for homicide convictions.

[rjshae]

The basic data seems difficult to fake: race, sex, years of experience of the officer, plus race of the suspect. How would you independently test the findings? The data has to come from somewhere.