Ferguson from a Police Perspective: Examining Experiences and Impact by Race

• In Event: Civilian-Police Encounters: Contemporary Implications for Race, Gender and Place (Organized by Division on People of Color and Crime)

Abstract

Prior research has examined how African American versus non-black residents experienced, reacted to, and were impacted by the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO and the civil unrest that followed. This study examines that event from the police officers’ perspectives, focusing on officers’ experiences with the public, impressions about government and leadership, media coverage, strain, coping strategies, and effects on the person and on policing. Emphasis is placed on examining differences in experiences and consequences based on officer race. The basis of the study is 42 in-depth interviews with St Louis County Police Department personnel involved in handling the shooting scene and civil unrest that followed in and around Ferguson, MO throughout 2014 and into 2015. Seven African American and 35 non-black subjects from various organizational rank levels and geographic assignments participated in the study.

Author

• Tammy Rinehart Kochel, Southern Illinois University