Police-Citizen Violence During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Exploring the Changing Dynamics During a Public Health Crisis

• In Event: Policing During Trying Times

Abstract

Public health measures issued during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as stay-at-home orders, had profound impacts on police organizational practices and police-citizen dynamics. Numerous agencies adopted policies to reduce proactive policing activities and limit arrests for minor crimes. Police responses during COVID-19 afford an opportunity to explore how such policies impact the nature of police-citizen contact generally and police-citizen violence specifically. To this end, we assess how changes in police-citizen interactions during this unprecedented time may have affected police-citizen violence using national datasets of violence against officers and officer-involved shootings. Further, we consider how variations in COVID-19 organizational responses, drawn from the 2020 LEMAS, influence these changes in police-citizen violence. Preliminary findings from analyses and their implications for police reform will be discussed.

Authors

• Alex Billmeier, Florida State University

• Keller Sheppard, Florida State University