How to actually stop police brutality, according to science [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

By Stephanie Pappas - Live Science Contributor 15 hours ago



An aerial view shows people gathering to pay tribute at a makeshift memorial in honor of George Floyd, on June 3, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
(Image: © CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)

Cities across the U.S. have been rocked by nightly protests against police brutality following the May 25 killing of a Black Minneapolis man named George Floyd by a White police officer.

And as videos proliferate of police arresting or tear gassing seemingly peaceful protestors, the issues raised by the protestors seem more insurmountable than ever. But researchers and activists say that solutions are no mystery: Evidence-based changes to policy around policing can reduce deaths at the hands of the police. These steps alone can't end racism overnight or erase the myriad inequalities in American society, but they can save lives.

Here's what the science says on how to combat police bias and killings.

1. Track the problem
There is no comprehensive government clearinghouse for data on police killings or police use of force. After the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, several private and nonprofit groups began keeping their own databases. These include Mapping Police Violence, an effort led by data scientist and activist Samuel Sinyangwe, Fatal Encounters, a catalog by journalist D. Brian Burghart, and efforts like the Washington Post's Fatal Force database.

Thanks to databases like these, it's clear that Black people are killed at a disproportionate rate by police officers, making up 24% of deaths despite being only 13% of the population, according to Mapping Police Violence. But the databases rely on media reports of deaths, not police department, city, state or government data, for the simple reason that many police departments are not forthcoming with this information.

More:
https://www.livescience.com/evidence-police-brutality-reform.html