The Social and Political Dynamics Underlying Police Impunity: A Case Study

• In Event: Police Misconduct and Equal Justice

Abstract

“Bluffs Peak” is a medium-large city in Western USA. It stood out for its high rate of deadly force and the lack of legal accountability following questionable police killings. To illuminate the social and political dynamics that underlie the apparent dearth of police accountability, interviews, observations, and archival text analysis were conducted in Bluffs Peak. In addition to interviews with 17 police officials, officers, and trainers, seventeen interviews were conducted with other stakeholders including activists, the district attorney and investigators, journalists, clergy, and police boosters. Five focus groups were also conducted in order to examine public knowledge and beliefs with respect to permissible deadly force. The study revealed police power entrenched through dependency and law and order politics. Accountability processes that often take hold elsewhere failed to either materialize or succeed in Bluffs Peak for numerous reasons, including a lack of transparency, superficial news coverage that constructs victims as unworthy, the lack of truly independent investigations, pro-police juries, and clergy who work with or for the police. Focus groups revealed significant gaps in public knowledge about legally permissible deadly force but that even the most conservative participants believed that criminal accountability was warranted in some cases for which none was achieved.

Author

• Paul J. Hirschfield, Rutgers University, New Brunswick