In the light of the current events in the United States (May-June, 2020), the issues of police brutality, violence, discrimination, and criticism of the law enforcement system overall deserve particular attention. Purposeful use of unwarranted coercion, abuse of power, verbal assaults, intimidations, and other forms of official misconduct by law enforcement officers are the practices that the criminal justice system of the United States attempts to eradicate at their root, but the cases are still common and rarely properly investigated. Police brutality is counter-effective, creates social tensions, and leads to distrust toward the professionalism and ethics of police officers in the United States of America.
Definitions and Numbers
Police brutality is defined as the use of excessive force by police on citizens. Lyle & Esmail (2016) linked the issue of police brutality to the angry aggression theory, suggesting the policy brutality is triggered by the “fight or flight” response to the threat, and conflict model, which implies that social ills are caused by opposing forces in society. Police brutality is a broad concept that requires a more detailed classification and distinctions. Albrecht (2017) classified police deviance into 5 different types of professional misconduct: police corruption, police criminality, excessive use of force, abuse of authority, and police misconduct. Each of these types of police brutality can occur in a combination with other factors, be internally (within the department or police agency) or externally (toward citizens) targeted, and lead to fatal outcomes, criminal behavior, and unprofessional decisions.
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The police service is accompanied by the use of force and police officers are provided with the right to use force when the situation requires it. In dealing with criminals, antisocial individuals, and dangerous suspects, police officers have to rely on their professional codes of conduct and ethics to determine the acceptance scope of the force use needed to fulfill their duty (Lyle & Esmail, 2016). However, according to research, almost 80% of the cases of police brutality and professional misconduct occur in police-controlled settings (Lyle & Esmail, 2016). The police-controlled settings are patrol cars or public places. In most of cases, there are no witnesses to support the victim of police brutality.
Historically, the issue of police violence against civilians can be traced back to the times of slave patrols in the 19th century (Carter, 2017). At that time, it was necessary to create laws to counter behaviors. The Emancipation Proclamation along with the 14th Amendment clarified the aspects of the civil rights violation. In later years, the 18 U.S.C. § 242 was an attempt to prevent violence against African Americans. The deprivation of individual rights based on race and ethnicity became a federal crime. As of today, under Section 242, police officers can be fined or imprisoned for discrimination. The contemporary standards of police conduct were set in the only year 1989 when the Supreme Court set the rule on objectively reasonable use of force (Carter, 2017). This law is currently used as the avenue for civilians to enforce their constitutional rights. The undue use of force by police officers is a violation of the human rights of the American citizens, which in turn shapes a negative attitude of the public toward the law enforcement system in general.
Attitude Toward Police
While the democratic society is based on the principles of justice, law, and equal treatment of all citizens, the issue of police brutality is widely covered by media reports, leading to the formation of certain attitudes toward police officers among the public. Lyle and Esmail (2016) noted that such cases as deaths of young African Americans at the “hands of cops with dubious use of force” contribute to the formation of a negative perception of police (141). Given the statistics that nearly 31 percent of all shooting victims by police represent 31% of African Americans, and yet more than 50 percent of 14,800 police agencies do not report police officers involved in homicide statistics (Lyle & Esmail, 2016). Based on these numbers and the fact that most of the cases are unreported, police brutality leads to mistrust among American citizens.
The job of a police officer is difficult and requires a high level of physical preparation, emotional stability, rational thinking, and the ability to cope with stress. Without the use of force, police officers cannot fully deliver their duty to the public. However, the key aspect with respect to policy brutality deals with the question of legal and responsible use of force and weapons. With almost 15,000 police departments across the country, there are over 780,000 police officers, but the policies on the use of force are not standardized on a national level (Lyle & Esmail, 2016).
The attitude toward police officers in the context of authority abuse was explained in the study reported by Lyle & Esmail (2016). Researchers noted that approximately one-quarter of police officers observed their co-workers harassing a citizen because of race. At the same time, nearly 80 percent of police officers do not support the so-called “code of silence”, when the observation of professional misconduct is not reported. However, almost 70% of police officers believe that reported incidents of misconduct will not be investigated. These numbers illustrate the culture of acceptance of police brutality among law enforcement officers. As the outcome, the attitude of society toward police brutality is justified because there are a few investigated cases of misconduct, even when they are reported by law enforcement officers.
In addition to the established attitude toward police officers, the perception is also shaped by previous experience with officers and media reports on violence. Obenwittler and Roche (2017) noted that procedural justice (when a police officer treats citizens with respect, explains actions, and sustains fairness) must follow due process. When police officers demonstrate authority, do not show respect, and do not provide a rationale for their actions, citizens can become either fearful of law enforcement officers or develop distrust, express a lack of willingness to cooperate, and pass negative attitudes toward police officers to their communities. Interestingly, the studies show that people who had positive encounters with police officers tend to have the same perception of police as the individuals who had no prior contact with the law enforcement system (Obenwittler & Roche, 2017). Further, Hispanics and African Americans are more likely than others to have prior experience with police officers based on mistreatment. According to research, 44 percent of African Americans in the age group of 18 to 30 years old reported they know someone who experienced harassment or violence by a police officer, and 22 percent of them reported being harassed or mistreated by a police officer.
Police Brutality and Racism
One of the important aspects of police brutality deals with the question of racing. The predominant majority of cases discussed in media as well as by the public are closely correlated to race as one of the defining features. As discussed above, African Americans are more likely to experience racial profiling and excessive use of force by police compared to other racial and ethnic minorities. The tendency resulted in a number of studies focusing on the relationship between racism and police brutality, ultimately leading to the recommendation of enhancing diversity programs for law enforcement agencies.
Discussing racism with regard to police brutality, Egharevba (2016) pointed out that the correlation between the two factors is deeply embedded in structural inequality. As the history of social, economic, and political equality among races and ethnicities is relatively young, the law enforcement agencies are not free of bias and prejudice, despite the proclaimed values of justice for all and equal rights for all citizens. Racism continues manifesting itself in unfairness, inequality in education and employment, and of course in criminal justice and law enforcement. The discourse on racism in the discussion on police brutality is a reflection of broad social patterns of inequality in the United States.
According to statistics, the United States ranks in the top 20 countries (out of 182) in terms of the public perception of government corruption. In other words, American citizens believe that up to 30 percent of officials engage in acts of corruption (Egharevba, 2016). These numbers are alarming and show that American citizens distrust the government in general and police officers in particular. The official rate of police misconduct, as reported by Egharevba (2016) is as low as 0.5 percent. It implies that less than 1 percent of all law enforcement personnel were subjects of allegations of criminality. These findings contradict the previously reported statistics, as discussed above, according to which more than half of police officers observed brutality and excessive use of force by their colleagues. The objective of complete eradication of police deviance is achieved mostly through the decrease of the reported incidents rather than through the decrease in the cases of brutality and excessive use of force, which is particularly true for the cases involving racial minorities because such cases instantly trigger the public attention and are mostly silenced.
While many cases of police brutality are silenced and a few of them being covered by the media, there are no reliable statistics and numbers to unveil the real situation with police brutality. At the same time, when the stories of brutality, especially when racial minorities are victimized and abused, trigger a wave of public dissatisfaction with the law enforcement system. For example, Zoorob (2020) noted that the media coverage of police brutality stories leads to a decrease in the 911 calls from the public, both for African American and white communities. Consequently, when police brutality is accompanied by prejudice and racism, the diverse public responds in the same way – the level of trust drops.
Given the fact that prosecution of police officers who were accused of brutality and professional misconduct is rare (less than 10 percent of the reported cases result in a conviction and less than 2 percent end with incarceration), the question of police brutality requires a more systemic approach (Burnette, 2017). The majority of the cases that are prosecuted are of high profile, such as murder. Due to the code of silence, which is unethical and unofficial, police offers refuse to testify against their coworkers and in many cases even cover up the evidence, complicating the process of investigation. For the public in general and families of the victims, it implies that no relief is obtained and no police officer is punished for the crime. As Burnette (2017) noted, it fuels the perception that black lives are not valued. When the crimes committed by police officers are not punished in the same way as the crimes committed by other citizens, there is no deterrence effect on other police officers, which ultimately may reinforce the culture of abuse and repetition of the same behavior.
Classifying the cases of police brutality against African Americans, Alang et al. (2017) suggested that the impact of racial prejudice among law enforcement agencies against racial minorities has a much broader impact on the American nation. In particular, police brutality targeting African Americans contributes to the increase in the mortality rates, leads to the negative psychological responses, stress caused by racist public reactions, the financial strain that comes along with arrests and incarcerations, and the reinforcement of the integrated oppressive structures. The experiences of African Americans with police brutality extend beyond individual encounters (Alang et al., 2017).
The Cost of Police Brutality
The cost of police brutality is not limited to the loss of trust among the public or the promotion of racist views and tensions in society. The research indicates that the estimation of the true cost of police brutality should include the costs to the victims and broken homes and families, the costs to the states and local governments, the costs to the communities, loss of trust in the social compact, and the cost to the reputation of the country in general (Lumsden, 2017). In addition to social costs and tensions, each case of police brutality covered by the media requires enormous financial expenses allocated to the investigation, training, new hires, and related aspects. On a social level, police brutality implies that people no longer feel protected and secure. Instead, they feel oppressed and intimated by law enforcement officers who are entrusted with the duty to maintain order and security.
The Recommendation
The issue of police brutality should not be left without attention not only because the public is eventually losing trust in the law enforcement system but also because the excessive use of force violates the key principles of police service. The recommendation, as suggested by Lyle & Esmail (2016) is to invest more time and resources into training police officers on acceptance defense tactics, how to deploy weapons safely, and how to avoid racial profiling. Ray, Ortiz, and Nash (2018) added that diversity training should be conducted across all police departments and specifically target those employees who are in direct contact with the public, offenders, and suspects. By testing police officers and identifying those members of the law enforcement system who have prejudice toward racial and ethnic minorities or the propensity to abuse physical and emotional force, the issue of brutality could be eradicated on the system level, resulting in higher trust toward police officers.
In conclusion, police brutality is one of the topics that require a systemic approach not only to the structure of law enforcement but also on cultural and social levels. Frequently discussed with reference to race, racism, and discrimination, police brutality, use of force, and professional misconduct should be the subjects of proper attention by policymakers and the public. While the history of racial equality is still recent, the changes need to be made now.
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