The Solution to Police Racism and Violence is Already Known
After being pulled over for a busted taillight on July 6, Philando Castile informed a Minnesota police officer at his window that he owned a gun and had a license to carry it. As he reached for his license and registration, his girlfriend and her 4-year-old daughter then watched as the police officer fired four shots into Castile’s body. He died in the driver’s seat.
Castile was one of 137 Black people in the United States killed by a police officer this year. Another Black man, Alton Sterling, was killed by police in Louisiana the night before. On Thursday, seemingly in response, five police officers were killed and six were wounded when snipers interrupted a peaceful protest in Dallas on July 7. Amid the violence there have been forceful calls to city leaders to address police racism and brutality.
But research has existed for awhile to show cities how to reduce racism and interrupt the violence.
Train for racial bias
Stereotypes about the criminality of Black communities affect a police officer’s decision to shoot a suspect. That’s a fact. However, racial bias training can address the preconceptions and subsequent racially based brutality. After extensive training with a computer simulator in which the race of the suspect was unrelated to the presence of a weapon, a Florida State University study showed that officers were able to eliminate their biases. In a separate study, California officers also found that listening to the community and giving suspects time to explain their side of the story reduced compliance issues and increased cooperation.
Hire more female officers
Female officers are less likely to use excessive force, according to a National Center for Women in Policing report that looked at seven major U.S. police departments. While women make up 12.7 percent of those departments, they only account for 5 percent of citizen complaints of excessive force. This also means that female officers cost their departments less, because they are less likely to be involved in litigation. The Los Angeles Police Department paid $63.4 million between 1990 and 1999 for lawsuits against male officers and only $2.8 million for those against female officers.