Behind the Headlines: Investigating Ethnic Bias in Police Communications

• In Event: The Role of Institutional Claims-Makers in Shaping Public Narratives About Crime and Safety

Abstract

Police press releases wield substantial influence in shaping public perceptions of law enforcement activities, yet the potential for perpetuating bias, particularly against minority suspects, remains largely unexplored. This study aims to bridge this gap by systematically analyzing the content and framing of police press releases to discern how minority suspects are portrayed.

A dataset of approximately 900,000 German police press releases from 2014-2022, processed using computational linguistic methods, forms the basis of our investigation. A focused analysis of a subsample of randomized 3,000 press releases offers deeper insights.

Through content analysis, we examine the selection mechanisms employed by the police in disseminating crime-related information to the media, with a particular focus on identifying biases in the portrayal of suspects from minority groups.Our findings suggest a notable disparity between police press releases and mass media in disclosing the nationality of suspects. Unlike journalism, driven by zeitgeist, the selection patterns in police communications remain stable over the studied time interval. The nationality of suspects is stated significantly less in police press releases than in media reports.

This study underscores the importance of critically examining police press releases to unveil potential biases and foster greater transparency in law enforcement communication practices.

Authors

• Thomas Hestermann, Macromedia University, Hamburg

• Kilian Foth, LangTec

• Annika Schilk, LangTec

• Patrick McCrae, LangTec