Community-Police Dialogues Exploring Patterns in Police Use of Deadly Force

• In Event: Police Decision-making Considerations For Enforcement Behaviors

Abstract

This paper explores a community dialogue project extending from the collection of 23 years of police use of deadly force data compiled by a group of University of Maryland - Baltimore County social research methods students during the 2014-2015 school year. A total of 283 cases in which a citizen was killed by police in the DC/Baltimore region were collected, coded, and analyzed. Initial insights from the data were presented in a Baltimore Sun editorial (http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-police-shootings-freddie-gray-20150503-story.html). An extended analysis of the data was subsequently used to initiate a series of discussion among police, among citizens, and between police and citizens aimed at exploring how policing in the community might be modified based upon trends identified in the data. This paper details how these dialogues were planned and facilitated, feedback from participants' experiences participating in the discussions, and the impact the exchanges had upon the community.

Author

• Suzanne Goodney Lea, University of Maryland, Baltimore County