Police Shooting Statistics and Public Support for Police Reforms

Abstract

Does providing information about police shootings influence policing reform preferences? We conducted an online survey experiment in 2021 among approximately 2,600 residents of 10 large US cities. It incorporated original data we collected on police shootings of civilians. After respondents estimated the number of police shootings in their cities in 2020, we randomized subjects into three treatment groups and a control group. Treatments included some form of factual information about the police shootings in respondents’ cities (e.g., the actual total number). Afterward, respondents were asked their opinions about five policing reform proposals. Police shooting statistics did not move policing reform preferences. Support for policing reforms is primarily associated with partisanship and ideology, coupled with race. Our findings illuminate key sources of policing reform preferences among the public and reveal potential limits of information-driven, numeric-based initiatives to influence policing in the US.

Reforming the Police: Examining the Effect of Message Framing on Police Reform Policy Preferences

“…In our study, participant attitudes about police reform were not affected when presented with statistics related to racial injustice nor those related to differential involvement in crime. Thus, like Schiff et al (2022), we contend that the highly salient and public nature of police reform may explain the lack of responsiveness to information about race and policing. However, future research should explore whether specific types of information (e.g., police demographics) or approaches to presenting that information (e.g., anecdotes) may be more impactful to public attitudes (Polletta & Redman, 2020).…”

“…Participants who learned about the racial demographics of police departments in the United States were more likely to support affirmative action programs compared with those who did not learn the information. However, Schiff et al (2022) found that presenting accurate information about the prevalence of police shootings did not affect attitudes about police reform. Research also examined how support for reform is affected by emphasizing who was endorsing the policy change (Boudreau et al, 2022) as well as varying the slogan for the reform proposal (Vaughn et al, 2022).…”

“…Research also examined correlates of support for police reform. For example, research on group-level differences generally found that Blacks and Latinxs 1 are more supportive of reform efforts when compared with their White counterparts (Graham et al, 2019; Schiff et al, 2022; Sousa et al, 2017; Ward et al, 2022). Related research found that older and higher-income respondents were less supportive of police reforms, while those who were more aware of high-profile instances of police misconduct and believed that misconduct, such as excessive force, was common in their area expressed more support for police reform (Weitzer & Tuch, 2004).…”

“…As such, researchers explored the impact of message framing on attitudes about police reform. One approach has been to present factual information about police shootings (Schiff et al, 2022) or police racial demographics (Peyton et al, 2022) to determine whether that information affects attitudes about reform. Peyton et al (2022) found that presenting participants with accurate information about police racial demographics increased support for hiring new officers from underrepresented groups.…”

The Social and Humanitarian Function of Law Enforcement Agencies under Martial Law

“…The main factors that influence the level of trust between the police and society are the following: belonging of the public to a certain ethnic group (distrust of the police is higher among African Americans and Latinos in the United States) (Brunet et al, 2023). Schiff et al (2023) also argue that support for police reform is primarily related to partisanship and ideology combined with race.…”