Abstract
Generally no greater factor than police use of force, particularly the firearms, has the potential to evoke the level of acknowledgement or criticism of the police. This is even more true today in the United States, as officer-involved shootings based on interactions with African-American and Black individuals has resulted in diminished trust and confidence in the police, and this is most apparent within minority groups. As such, the need for a comprehensive database that will permit government leaders, policing administrators and the public-at-large to better understand these tragic scenarios is warranted. A model for such a database is posed, followed by an outline of a comprehensive analysis of the results for American police shooting data from 2000 through 2017.
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Notes
- 1.
Incident Variables: Date (day, month, season, year), Approximate time (early morning, morning, noon, afternoon, evening, night and midnight), number of officers on the scene, number of officers, who fired their guns, number of rounds hit the target, part of target being hit (head/neck, torso, limbs), Lawsuit?, Geographical info (region, state, city, address, location type, Lat/Lon coordinates), source.
Subject Variables: age, race, gender, fatality, mental status, weapon possession, type of aggression, use of vehicle, occurrence of any foot or car chase, gang affiliation, nationality, fatality/injury.
Officer Variables: race, gender, experience, affiliation, department type, assignment, status (on/off duty) and type of police call, fatality/injury..
- 2.
Source Variables: Book, Broadcast Transcripts, Governmental reports, Court Document, Dataset, Journal, Magazine, Mailing List, Newspaper, NGO Report, Website, Wire Report, World News Connection
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Arslan, H. (2019). The Impact of Police Shootings in the United States on Police-Community Relations. In: Albrecht, J.F., den Heyer, G., Stanislas, P. (eds) Policing and Minority Communities. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19182-5_7
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