TALKING POINTS: Excessive Use of Force
BACKGROUND
A twelve year old boy in Uniontown, Pennsylvania; a frightened 88 year old woman in Atlanta, Georgia, and an unarmed man on the eve of his wedding in New York City. These are the faces of racially biased police shootings. In these worst case scenarios, innocent lives were lost because the police, on some level, the police who shot out acted from an instinct that the victims' dark skin signaled guilt and danger.
Each new case of an innocent African-American who pays with his or her life is a grim reminder of the urgent need for reform in the use of force against black people. Though the lives of victims like Amadou Diallou or Sean Bell are lost to us forever, their deaths must serve as a call to reform a broken and racially biased system of law enforcement.
The NAACP is committed to a proactive approach to police shootings and all other forms of police brutality. We will not wait for the next inevitable violation only to decry after the fact that it should not have happened. We must push for solutions that will help to keep the next officer from needlessly reaching for his or her gun to use against an innocent person simply because of the color of their skin.
QUICK STATS
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A study of police use of force in Texas found that force was used against African-American citizens twice as often as against whites citizens. Hispanic citizens experienced 25% more incidents of police use of force.
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One study of police officers in Illinois found that 25% admitted having seen a fellow officer harass an individual "most likely" because of his or her race.
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Any use of force among police is relatively rare, occurring in less than 1% of all police contacts, but excessive use of force has been found to occur in up to 35% of all encounters that involved any force.
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25% of police agreed with the statement that whistle-blowing against other officers is "not worth it" and 60% agreed that officers do not report even serious abuse of authority by their colleagues.
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90% of police agreed that front-line supervisors could be effective in preventing the officers under their command from abusing their authority.
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A study of 6,447 reports of use of force in Austin, TX found only one incident where a supervisor suggested any wrongdoing by the officer.
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50% of all officers and 65% of African-American officers believe that community policing is effective in reducing police abuse of authority.
POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS
The following policies are promising ways for the police to address police shootings and brutality based on race, before they happen.
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Data: Every police department should keep detailed records of police contacts and incidents of use of force by race and gender. These statistics are already kept by many departments in the form of "Stop, Question and Frisk Report Worksheets" which should be more widely adopted
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Accountability: Incidents of excessive use of force and disparities in arrest data should be tracked for individual officers and used as a factor in promotion and retention of officers.
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Leadership: Police chiefs and other leaders must lead by example in condemning racial profiling and excessive use of force at every opportunity and never engaging in it themselves.
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Prosecution: Cases of police brutality must be prosecuted with a better record of success and the code of silence that protects officers who abuse their authority must be challenged.
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Citizen Oversight: Citizen oversight in the form of community review boards must become a more standard practice.
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Training: Law enforcement officers of all races must be trained to acknowledge and confront their racial biases. Developing a conscious awareness of bias will inform better decision making in moments of crisis.
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Intervention: A small number of officers are responsible for a disproportionate share of uses of excessive force. Early intervention is needed with these officers.
TAKE ACTION!
Don't wait for the next victim. Get engaged in your community, organize and make a proactive push for these reforms at the local level.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
NAACP Washington Bureau Director
Hilary Shelton
202-463-2950
hshelton@naacpnet.org
Press Contact:
Richard McIntire
NAACP Communications Department:
410.580.5787
rmcintire@naacpnet.org
