Minority Representation and Order Maintenance Policing: Toward a Contingent View

Abstract

ObjectiveThis article's aim is to test the impact of black political and bureaucratic representation on the rate at which blacks are arrested for order maintenance violations in U.S. cities.MethodsUsing data from the Law Enforcement Management and Administration Survey, the Census Bureau, and the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, for all U.S. cities over 100,000 population, the article first documents the continuing influence of black elected officials in promoting black representation on police forces. After establishing the appropriateness of order maintenance policing as a follow‐up focus, the article then tests hypotheses that link variation in the rate of black order maintenance arrests to black political and bureaucratic representation, contingent upon form of government.ResultsBlack political representation does constrain black order maintenance arrests, while black representation on the police force does not.ConclusionEven with a more racially representative police force in place, black political representation is what matters in constraining controversial patterns of police practice.