A Tale of Force: Examining Policy Proposals to Address Police Violence

Abstract

We develop an explicitly organizational and relational approach to examine the problem of police violence, focusing empirically on prominent policy recommendations to increase officer demographic diversity, raise educational requirements for new officers, and implement community policing strategies. We first review prior research on these proposals, which is surprisingly thin and non-supportive of the proposals. To examine the baseline plausibility of these recommendations, we estimate cross-sectional negative binomial models, regressing counts of police department use of force on indicators of community policing, officer education, and officer racial and gender diversity. We find that police organizations with more college-educated officers are less violent toward citizens, but that the race and sex composition of law enforcement organizations are not associated with lower levels of police violence. After unpacking the community police philosophy into component practices, we find that practices that encourage proactive policing are associated with higher levels of police violence, while those that encourage the formation of relationships with citizens may reduce police violence. In conclusion, we advocate for better data collection on police violence, increased theorizing of police violence as an organizational accomplishment, and future policy interventions that approach police forces as potentially violent and racialized organizations.