This weekend marks 5 years since George Floyd was killed by Officer Derek Chauvin of the Minneapolis Police Department. Expect to see some news stories in the coming weeks wrestling with the question of why police killings have not become any less frequent, despite the wave of reforms that were introduced in the wake of the “Defund” movement. In fact, police killings have continued on an upward trend, with 2024 witnessing the greatest number of people killed by police since 2013, according to Mapping Police Violence.
Earlier today I was reminded of some data I’m sitting on that my colleagues and I never published anywhere. This comes from a web-based survey of police officers at a large, southern agency that we administered in 2018. The response rate was 31%.
So we asked officers to consider eight ideas that “have been proposed as ways to improve policing” and indicate the extent they supported or opposed each. We listed a hodgepodge of “reforms” including some that would (1) expand police authority, (2) restrict police authority, or (3) increase citizen oversight.
A roundtable about disparities in policing and how to address them. With Sadaf Hashimi, Tracie Keesee, and Seth Stoughton (moderated by Walter Katz).
Click on the Video button above to watch.
A discussion about the function of police, the role of police oversight, and various reforms that have been suggested.
A discussion about reimagining policing in America.
I was a guest on this podcast where we discuss what science tells us about police use of force.