University researchers have released new findings into how 黑料吃瓜网 police use force on the job, from pointing their guns at people to subduing them with electrical shocks or tackling them to the ground.
A (IMRP) at the University of 黑料吃瓜网 provides a comprehensive review of 1,516 police use-of-force incidents that occurred from July 1, 2022 through Dec. 31, 2023.
Among its findings, the analysis points to a racial disparity in how municipal police use force against Black people. A significant share of violent police encounters also involve people experiencing mental health challenges, the study found.
Researchers in 黑料吃瓜网 are in a rare position to study policing trends. A state law requires state and local law enforcement agencies to report annual data on qualifying force incidents.
黑料吃瓜网 is now believed to be one of only two states with a standardized process for collecting the information, IMRP Associate Director Ken Barone said. In recent years, IMRP worked with the state鈥檚 Police Officer Standards and Training Council to develop a reporting form and manual for police departments, which were introduced in July 2022.
Below are some of the study鈥檚 findings, based on 18 months of data collected under the program:
Police used force on Black people at disproportionate rate
Black people faced a disproportionately high rate of use-of-force incidents, a finding that wasn鈥檛 evident in other racial groups.
Black people accounted for about 41% of subjects involved in use-of-force incidents reported by city and town police departments, despite comprising only about 34% of those arrested, according to the study.
By contrast, only about 57% of force subjects were white, though nearly 63% of arrestees were white, the study found.
鈥淭he reasons for that may be complicated,鈥� Barone said. 鈥淭he reasons for that we're trying to dig into in more recent data to try to understand what's driving that.鈥�
Among Hispanic people, use-of-force incidents were roughly proportional to arrests, falling in the range of 28% to 29% in both categories.
The report notes that more robust data would help researchers explore racial disparities. Currently, they don鈥檛 have access to granular details about the circumstances, charges filed and officers involved. They also lack records of arrests that don鈥檛 involve the use of force. Having that information would allow more precise comparisons between similar events.
Many incidents involve people in emotional distress
The report highlights how frequently police use force to resolve situations involving people in clear mental health distress, a finding repeated from an earlier study of preliminary use-of-force data.
Among municipal agencies, officers reported concerns about the subject's mental health in one quarter of all use-of-force incidents, the study found.
Police suspected half of emotionally disturbed subjects were under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and reported about one third were physically aggressive. Nearly the same share had prior hostile encounters with law enforcement.
Police also perceived about one quarter of emotionally disturbed subjects as being armed. The report notes few were classified as "non-aggressive."
"These overlapping factors pose particular challenges for officers, who must navigate immediate safety concerns while ensuring an appropriate response to individuals potentially experiencing mental health crises," the report states.
In some cases, police also reported subjects were suicidal, or attempting so-called 鈥渟uicide by cop,鈥� meaning provoking or threatening officers to elicit a lethal response. Such incidents have increased in 黑料吃瓜网 in recent years, Barone said.
鈥淭hat is something that I think we raised as a concerning issue more globally,鈥� he said.
In the future, researchers hope to study factors such as where law enforcement encounters with people in mental distress are occurring, and whether having a social worker on staff reduces the number of use-of-force incidents.
Force is relatively rare
Use-of-force incidents represented approximately 1.6% of the 96,483 arrests made statewide, according to the study. That number is consistent with the level of force reported in a previous study, and it suggests police resort to serious force in a relatively small percentage of encounters, Barone said.
However, few benchmarks exist to measure the findings, he said.
鈥淏ecause we're one of the only states in the country that does this, we don't have other states we can turn to鈥� to make a comparison, he said.
When documenting the type of resistance they encountered, officers most commonly checked a box for 鈥淥ther鈥� (about 45% of incidents), followed by: fleeing (44%); threat or hostile behavior (35%); fighting stance or combative behavior (33%) and dead weight or non-compliant behavior (29%).
Among the most common types of force police used were physical control tactics, such as takedowns and holds (47%); pointing firearms (40%); and using conducted electronic weapons, commonly known as tasers (29%). Police used more serious force, such as firing a gun, using pepper spray or deploying dogs, in about 6% of incidents.
Next steps include geographical analysis
With a standard data collection process in place, researchers at UConn hope to produce annual use-of-force reports going forward. Their areas of focus will include exploring how subject behavior influences officer decisions in real time, and using geographic data to identify high-frequency use-of-force locations.
鈥淥ur goal is to strengthen trust between police and the public,鈥� Barone said in a statement. 鈥淐ollecting, analyzing, and publicly reporting use-of-force incidents is a crucial step toward greater transparency, and transparency is essential to building that trust.鈥�
