RESEARCH
Impact of Officer- Involved Shootings on Citizen Contact with the Government
When compared with the number of police-citizen contacts , the use of force by police is extremely rare . Despite this , increased public attention of police use of force has led to more academic research on the frequency and patterns of these incidents .
These initiatives have examined a variety of topics including officer discretion and accountability . Extensive attention has been placed on the use of force relative to the persons ’ race . The focus of most use of force research has been on its correlates and causes , not the consequences .
Unfortunately , political scientists have given little attention to police use of force on American political life . The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of police use of force on citizen engagement in their community . It was suggested that after these events , individuals may be emboldened to seek reforms and greater public accountability .
70 SPRING . 2021
Others , however , may feel distrustful of local communities and become disengaged .
To evaluate the effect of use of force on citizens ’ relationship with their government , researchers collected data on every officer-involved shooting ( OIS ) in the Los Angeles , California between 2010 and 2017 . This data was compared with citizen-initiated contact with emergency 911 and non-emergency 311 calls for assistance . Los Angeles has 1,135 reporting districts ranging in size from 1 / 1,000 square miles to eight square miles . The calls in these districts were evaluated for the 30 days following an OIS in the district .
The researchers found no evidence that OIS impacted citizen calls for emergency or non-emergency services during these periods . Interestingly , this study also found that 44 % of the OIS were fatal . This is an increase from 22 % in the 1970 ’ s . Second , black citizens were more likely to be shot by an officer than other races , but they were less likely to die than persons in any other group . Finally , “ outside the lower fatality rate of black civilians shot by an officer , there was no racial variation on fatality or any interactive effect with the race of the officer who shot the civilian ” ( p . 1117 ).
Elisha Cohen , Anna Gunderson , Kaylyn Jackson , Paul Zachary , Tom S . Clark , Adam N . Glynn , Michael Leo Owens , “ Do Officer-Involved Shootings Reduce Citizen Contact with Government ”, Journal of Politics , Vol . 81 , No . 3 , ( July 2019 ), pp . 1111- 1123 .