Police Organizational Factors and Lethal Police Behavior

• In Event: Police Violence and the Role of Police Accountability

Abstract

Despite the increased attention to police killings in American society, the relationship between police organizations and police killings remains under-researched. The few prior studies examining variation in deadly force across police agencies have relied on incomplete highly unreliable police killings data. Recently available national data permit more reliable comparisons across America’s police departments. The current study examines the link between organizational factors and police use of lethal force, while controlling for community characteristics. This study utilizes the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics Survey from 2013 and a data set that relies on news accounts and public records to record nearly all deadly force incidents in the United States between 2013 and 2015. The analysis will include police departments in various jurisdictions, including towns, cities, and counties. Multivariate models examine counts of police killings as function of police organizational factors in both large and small cities.

Authors

• Marina Henein, Rutgers University

• Paul Hirschfield, Rutgers University

• Joel Miller, Rutgers University