Study finds non-white Chicago officers made fewer arrests, lesser use of force
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The research noted that Black, Hispanic, and female police officers in Chicago made fewer stops and arrests as compared to their white male counterparts, particularly for petty crimes
After "scrambling" from police in his youth days, Bocar Ba, an economist from the University of California, used to think about cops behaviour and its impact on civilians.
In 2015, he decided to study an important social question: Does the race of a police officer matter when he uses force or take a decision to stop someone on suspicion?
Ba and his colleagues checked police records from 2012 to 2015 to analyse their actions, the race of the civilian, among other things.
The research noted that Black, Hispanic, and female police officers in Chicago made fewer stops and arrests as compared to their white male counterparts, particularly for petty crimes, reports Sciencemag.
"A lot of other studies out there have tried to use officer race as a benchmark test for discrimination … (but this one) got much more precise estimates of what the police workplace actually looks like," said Jeffrey Fagan, a professor of law at Columbia University.
The data found that on average Black officers in Chicago made 29 per cent fewer stops and 21 per cent fewer arrests than their white counterparts. The Black cops also use 32 per cent force less frequently.
Overall, Black officers stopped 17 per cent fewer white civilians and 39 per cent fewer Blacks.