The Effect of a Death-in-Police-Custody Incident on Community Reliance on the Police

Clearing crimes in the aftermath of police lethal violence

“…Also, NIBRS does not provide detailed geographical information for crime incidents, so NIBRS incident data cannot be connected to neighborhood‐level census data. That is unfortunate, because neighborhoods have been the focus of recent research investigating consequences of police violence (Cohen et al., 2019; Desmond et al., 2016; Moyer, in, press; Zoorob, 2020), and others have noted their relevance for clearance (e.g. LoFaso, 2020; Mancik et al., 2018; Petersen, 2017; Pizarro et al., 2020; Vaughan, 2020).…”

“…They attributed perceptions of police more to residents’ long‐standing lived experience than to their reactions to specific events. Along with that work on citizens’ perceptions, Moyer (in press) investigated the possible behavioral impact of Freddie Gray's death, finding no significant change in neighborhood‐level counts of Baltimore 911 calls about noncriminal or criminal issues. Cohen et al.’s (2019) research on 911 and 311 (for nonemergency city issues) calls in Los Angeles showed no significant difference between districts that did or did not have an officer‐involved shooting, or between districts with fatal shootings and those with nonfatal shootings.…”

“…Decisions to report crime or cooperate with police involve complicated considerations of potential costs and benefits in specific situations (e.g., Bell, 2016; Felson et al., 2002; Gottfredson & Gottfredson, 1988), in which critical views of police may be just one element among many that could influence behavior. Empirical evidence on police violence and citizens’ crime reporting is mixed (Cohen et al., 2019; Desmond et al., 2016; Moyer, in, press; Zoorob, 2020), and these observations suggest that police violence may not have a discernible relationship with crime clearance.…”

Changes in public–police cooperation following the murder of George Floyd

“…Reny and Newman ( 28 ), for example, found in opinion surveys that the murder of George Floyd was associated with sharp jump in unfavorable opinions of police among politically liberal Whites, as well as Black, Hispanic, and Asian Americans. While the prior literature shows little impact of highly publicized police abuse or deadly force cases on the public's willingness to call the police ( 1 , 23 , 24 ), there are few incidents that have had such widespread impact on public perceptions of the police as the murder of George Floyd. If an effect did materialize, it is reasonable to expect that the impact was immediate, tracking public opinion.…”

“…Once removed, the data suggested that calls to police did not change significantly in response to the beating of Frank Jude. Moyer ( 24 ) examined whether the death of Freddie Grey in 2015 April, while in the custody of the Baltimore Police, and subsequent protests, led to change in community calls to the police for vehicle accidents, adult well-being checks, behavioral health, and other non-crime-related matters. Moyer found that calls to the police for non-crime-related matters in Baltimore, MD, did not change across the entire city or by the sections of the city that varied based on levels of poverty, age, race, employment, poverty, and housing vacancy following the death of Freddie Grey.…”