Running head: POLICE BRUTALITIES AND POLICE-INITIATED SHOOTING 1

POLICE BRUTALITIES AND POLICE-INITIATED SHOOTING

Lincoln Rena Augustine

Arizona State University

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Abstract

This paper explores fifteen published articles that report on if higher education and training can

prevent police brutalities and police-initiated shooting. The articles, however, vary in their

definitions if police misconduct can be prevented by HET. Kahn & Davies (2017) argued that

police shooting and unlawful can be caused by factors such as socioeconomic status, racial bias,

demographic etc. The way to understand police officers misconduct against African-America

citizen in the community, humanity must first recognize the history of racial injustice of those in

the minority. Wade (2017) events occurring today in the American culture is a continuance of the

1960s, a time where those being oppressed were fighting for equal rights. Other researcher like

Barthelemy believe that police-initiated shooting can be influence by personal experience,

members within the field, and race. As a result, police misconduct today is an environmentally

outcome from the American history due to racism. Many researchers have suggested that police

officers need to be trained and educate to act in an unbiased manner towards everyone and it

does not matter the color of your skin or what races you are from.

Keyword: racial injustice, misconduct, police-initiated shooting, racial discrimination,

police brutalities, higher education and training.

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Introductory

Higher level education and training can prevent police-initiated shootings. Police-

initiated shootings and their interactions within the community have become a focus of concern

within the past five to six years. Due to safety concerns within communities, researchers from all

over the country are identifying solutions to prevent and stop shooting incidences. According to

Wade, in the article Social Unrest and Community-Oriented Policing Services, there have been

several high-profile police-involved shootings since 2014. Scholars believe that Americas long

history of racial prejudice has caused a disconnect between the police and the citizens of the

community, especially against African American men. The belief of scholars is that higher

education and training that focuses on bringing the police officer and residents of the community

together can break stereotypes, resulting in less unarmed African American men being shot by

police officers and promoting a much more peaceful correlation between law enforcement

enforcers and our community. "Perhaps education in our schools and working with local law

enforcement may be a solution to the current problem regarding racial tensions in our country"

(Wade, 2017). This paper will examine if police-initiated shootings could be prevented by higher

education and training.

History of Police Brutalities

Americans have faced challenges regarding different social issues and injustices between

different groups that continue today. Police brutality against the African American community is

just one example of a social issue that continues to grow. To understand police misbehavior

against the African-America community, society must first understand the history of racial

injustice of those in the minority. According to Wade, events occurring today in the American

culture is a continuation of the 1960s, a time where those being oppressed were fighting for
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equal rights. Scholars are recognizing the similarities of how black communities were being

treated by police during the civil rights movement and today.

Police officer brutality against non-whites have been part of the American culture and

will continue. Scholars have been going above and beyond to identify a connection to police

misconducting against non-whites. Based on the article, The Ugly Side of America: Institutional

Oppression and Race, recent research found that police officers use their discretion when

choosing their primary target. However, you cannot do this without race being involved. A

police officer is trusted to be able to make decisions for their safety and the safety of the

community. However, if the police officer has preconceived prejudices that anyone with dark

skin is more dangerous than someone with light skin, then they have full ability to use their

"discretion" and act accordingly. This idea is known as racial profiling when an individual is

targeted based on the color of their skin or the language they speak, etc., (Seabrook & Wyatt-

Nichol, 2016).

Research shows that one’s views on racial discrimination is dependent on race (Price &

Payton, 2017). About 61% of African Americans were reported to be more likely to believe race

relations are negative in comparison to the 34% of white adults that believe race relations are

negative (2017). In addition, African Americans were identified as being more likely than whites

to believe that the police and courts treats them less fairly than whites (2017). On the other hand,

other researchers believe that police misconduct is far beyond racism. Some scholars argue that

police misconduct is directly correlated with the demographic location and the stress of their job.

According to Chase Burnett (2009), abuse of authority is associated with the politics within the

department, insufficient change in salary and shift work were some of the top issues within in the

department considered stressful by everything that was going on elsewhere. Measurement of

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service and education were found to have a significant link between the demographics measured.

Klinger, (Burnett, 2009), believes that this current issue is due to the lack of training and

education within the police department. The author believes in reducing the problem or fixing it,

physical training must be provided to the officers for them to do their job effectively and in a

lawful manner to maintain peace and create an atmosphere of safety, not aggression.

The articles gave strong arguments on the issue of police brutality. One side of the case

stated that the environment and race might have a significant impact on police officer's

misconduct, but they can also argue that lack of education and training can play an important

role in that as well. In addition, including community and diversity programming into the

department for police officers would be a great way to build relationships within communities

and therefore reduce police brutality in the African American based communities. President

Clinton created a program called Community Oriented Policing based on the British model from

Sir Robert Peel to help assist connecting law enforcement and citizens in the community

together. Clinton wanted a program that allowed government power of the police instead of the

police doing their own thing. Through the program community leaders and police officers have

the chance to work with one another to define what issues are present in the community and how

to address those issues together (Wade, 2017).

Police Misconduct

Police brutality continues to leave the American people speechless throughout the

country. Researchers are working to identify the real issue behind officers’ misconduct that is

tearing apart communities. Is it a lack of education or is it the lack of program training?

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Many believe the outdated police system that was put in place in the 1960s is the cause of police

brutality. Based on the article "Stop and Frisk and torture-Lite: Policer terror of Minority

Communities" many of the police department are outdated. For example, while this line of

reasoning demonstrates a real difference between modern forms of racial subordination and older

forms of the same, it misses the point that all of these mechanisms of racial subordination serve

the same larger purpose of (Butler, 2013). Furthermore, scholars believe that "race is always a

factor and when attached to profiling promulgates a long-standing bias that has resonated

between modern policing and the African American community,"(Seabrook & Wyatt-Nichol

2016). This issue will continue to move the American culture until society can come together to

fix it. In other conclude by Barthelemy, Chaney, Maccio, Church, police misconducting is

influenced by more than just the lack of education and physical training. When looking at the

issue it is worth looking at personal experience, members within the field, and race. According to

several researcher’s police officers have been found to have a universal implicit bias against

racial and ethnic minorities. The sad truth regarding most African American deaths documented

on the media is that they are correlated with white police officers. Change at this point is

imperative… the trend is believed to be due to some of these officers being taught (informally

and/or formally} that minorities are generally more likely to be at fault and more of a “danger”

or “hazard” to society, (Price & Payton, 2017).

According to Kahn & Davies, police shooting and unlawful and can be caused by factors

such as socioeconomic status, racial bias, demographic etc. Stereotypes play a key role into

police officers' decision to shoot when coming encounter with a black person. For example,

when individual encounter a black suspect, the black racial stereotype is primed, which includes

violence and criminality, influencing decision making to be in line with the stereotype. (Kahn &
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Davies, 2017). Researchers identified that there are tensions between police officers and the

citizens in the community. The tension between police officers and the people they are

responsible for protecting creates issues for both sides. In the past couple of years, the use of

force from law enforcement against African Americans has come to public attention due to the

number of incidence of innocent people dying. "The use of deadly force by law enforcement

often entails the public interactions of the police, district attorneys, social activists, the media,

elected government officials, families of the victims and the medical examiner" (Gill &

Pasquale-Styles, 2009). Moreover, according to a research that was done between 2003 to 2012

37 citizens died due to police officers misconducting and about 81% of those victims were

Africa American, (Price & Payton, 2017).

Society must consider all when it comes to this matter and now that they know this is an

ongoing problem, what are they going to do about it? The police department and social groups

need to come together to unfold this issue. There is no time to waste because there is

responsibility in stopping this cycle for the generations to come. Moreover, other authors like

Kahn & Davies believe in reducing crime in the community is to create a comfortable

environment where both police and citizens can interact and support each other. One way may be

to develop a comfortable environment for police and community to would be to meet at

community locations such as recreation centers or cafes, (Kahn & Davies, 2017).

Education/Training

Many researchers are working together to determine whether higher education and

training can prevent police shooting and improve police officer's interaction with citizens in the

community. Moreover, many scholars believe that the lack of education and training program

might be a reason for police officers' unlawful misbehavior when facing a difficult task with the
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public. For example, research was done using the risk management to see how officers recall

information that was presented to them in training. During the study, the researchers selected

several officers and sent them an email on topics like memory, reading comprehension,

mathematical reasoning, judgment and observation ability to see how good the police officers are

at recalling this information. Researchers concluded that there was a need for a handwritten test

due to limited responses from email. Additionally, questions regarding problem-solving would

be appropriate to include in further testing. Police officers were unable to handle high-risk

situations.

Scholars believe the different levels of education play an important role in the decision

when dealing with high-risk situations. Richard H. Martin, (2012), takes a different stance by

using surveys from a different part of the country and in the Caribbean in his research to help

police departments understand how to identify successful recruits. Martin includes four steps that

most PD need use in their training programs for an entry-level officer. The four steps include

basic training, in-service training, specialized training for career development, and pre-

employment training (Bolton, 2017). Education can be supplemental to these training, but it is

not an important aspect according to Martin. Martin believes if any police department takes those

steps before hiring a recruit, she or he will come ready to perform. Based on the study there will

always be problems involved within police departments, however, if the departments follow the

steps to hire a recruit and train them, then these problems will be reduced. There have been

questions about how the police have been using deadly force to take down citizens when facing

risk in the community. The police department needs to take the training process seriously to

reduce the behavior of police officers who brutalize citizens. Training may not end the problem,

but for now, it will slow it down enough until scholars can come up with a better solution.
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Furthermore, in the article Implicit Racial Bias and Police Use of Lethal Force: Justifiable

Homicide or Potential Discrimination? The author believes if police training should include bias,

community review action and all universal data collection on police officers violence rates; plus

seeking an legislative and organizational policy reform in law enforcement due to the mass

shooting around the country.

Based on the article Confronting Implicit Bias for Everyone's Safety: police officers

personal bias plays a critical role when it comes to quickness of deadly force by officers. Based

on a research that was conducted by Dr. Fridell, police officers need to be trained to act in an

unbiased manner towards any and all races. Dr. Fridell’s research program explores the of

training patrol officers how not to be biased when dealing with citizens coming in and out of the

country. The program ended up going viral and is now used by several police departments to

train their officers. For example, “She launched the for-profit company in 2011. The program

started as a way to train patrol officers and supervisors, but the curriculum has expanded to

instruct an agency's trainers who, in turn, can coach their own officers, (The New York Times,

2018).”

In addition to training and the hiring process, scholars are to find a solution that can work

for both the police but also the justice system. The environment the police is a part of is also part

of the problem. Anna Bussu, believes that you cannot provide training for one group but not the

other. If that's the case, then society is more likely to be fair to the citizens when it comes to

officers' misconduct. The study believes that the judicial system and police department need to

work together to help each other out and to come up with a solution to help the citizens, in the

community and regain their trust for the police. The article, "promoting a Culture of Fairness:

Police Training, Procedural justice, and compliance" suggest that police department does not use
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procedural justice as a training tool for a police officer because they will not follow the rules.

According to the article, cultural training would be the program for officers; because it would

teach them about the culture and the community they are a part of. However, there was another

post and pre-training done with several recruit's officers using (voice 4 values), or control

condition, to show how the officers would respond to the procedural justice or compliance with

the supervisor. After selecting enough information, the study showed that those recruits who

receive the voice 4 values did not respond as well as those who did not receive it, (Sergeant,

Antrobus, and Platz, 2017). When it comes to the field of law enforcement, every new recruiter

should go through the same rigorous curriculum and process you would go through in any other

field such as teaching, physical therapy, physiology, and nursing. Furthermore, other researchers

like Whitea and Heslop believe the process for recruits within the police department is too

sample. For example, “In teacher and nurse education, students become professionals through

the HE processes. In the policing model, officers become professionals through their training,

(Whitea & Heslop).” Nonetheless dose the research end there; researchers are continuing to look

for other way or trying to find the best situation for this matter. Based on a research collected

from the UK the authors found that, a significant change is needed to the way we think about and

deliver training if it is to have wider impact. In fact, they believe that training for police officer

need to be taking more seriously and its dissemination both need to be more dynamic if the time

we spend and resources they put are to have real impact on officers, (Beighton, Poma &

Leonard, 2016).

Many scholars believe the lack of training is the reason for unlawful police misbehavior

against citizens in the community. In the article Police Education, Experience, and the Use of

Force, the author discussed the most likely cause of an officer to use force and what can prevent
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that from happening. Based on the article even though education plays a key role in police

officer's decision, it's still not the most important part of reducing officer-involved shootings.

What was found to be the most effective in the training program was the police officers

experience on the job. Even though they believe officers with higher education are less likely to

be involved compared to a lower educated officer, they still believe experience on the job is the

way to go to reduce the unlawful behavior. According to James P. Mcelvain and Augustine J.

Kposowa officers who were involved in a shooting, are more likely to be in an encounter with

another shooting in the future. "Interestingly, there was no difference between officers with some

college and those with a high school diploma when it comes to using physical force" (Mcelvain

and Kposowa 2008). The author of this article believes that education level has nothing to do

with police officer misbehavior. Based on their research, they found that from 1990 to 2004 most

of the officers that were involved in incidents like police shootings were officers between 30 to

34 years of age. However, the more experience you have, the more likely you will have an

encounter that contains the use of force.

According to the article, Evaluation of Violence Risk (threat) Assessment Training

Program for police and Other Criminal Justice Professionals, "training can increase knowledge,

skills, and attitudes related to violence risk assessment in criminal justice professionals." (Story,

Gibas, Reeves, & Hart, 2008). The author believes that all police officers can be trained to act

the right way and it's very important for them to get the right training if they want to improve

their careers as policemen. There are pre and post-training done with some officers, and other

CRJ professions, which showed an increase in knowledge, skills and attitudes. The author

believes training is the key to reduce police shooting in the community. However, on the other

hand there are many researchers who firmly believe that higher education and training can
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prevent police officer misconduct. For example, in the article Adding value? A review of the

international literature on the role of higher education in police training and education, Patterson

claims that the second area where higher education can improve accountability is in the police

officers hand. Throughout the article the author argues that education and training impacts

officers in ways such as professionalism, accountability, attitudes, performance and legitimacy.

These points offer a point of view that encourages law enforcers to look through traditional

training and work harder to successfully provide a safe and good environment for its residents.

Scholars are working together to come up with other resources that will be useful for

agencies to help police officers becomebetter at their duty. According to Hyeyoung Lim and

Hoon Lee, in the article the effects of supervisor education and training on police use of force,

misbehavior is shaped by their environments. The article argues that education does not affect

police officers; neither can education reduce officers' unlawful behaviors. The author believes

that the only way to reduce police officers' misconduct is daily supervision and training

programs. "Education is the development of knowledge and attitude in performing job tasks and

in understanding the reason behind those tasks, (Lim and Lee, 2015)." They have confidence that

education will benefit the supervisor or leadership roles more than the officers working directly

in the community. Many believe better supervisors that can role model and shape the atmosphere

of the department will create better officers. That's why it's more important for police

departments to focus on high education levels for the supervisors while doing daily field training

programs with police officers.

There are many opinions and suggestions on how to improve our justice system.

However, most will agree that police brutality and shootings of innocent people is an issue that

needs to be addressed. There must be a new approach for police officers to interact with the
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citizens in the community to develop and strong relationship that will be a benefit to both parties.

Currently, there is no communication between the police and the people that they protect.

According to Brown, Abalt, Rivera, Cenzer, Wilbelm & Williams, crisis Intervention training

(CIT) programs are now becoming a mandatory component of police training nationwide. This

program is becoming an important part of police training to train officers on how to act in crises.

Conclusion

The main goal of this paper was to determine whether higher education and training can

reduce police brutality. There was not enough information to clearly determine whether higher

education and training can prevent the police officer's misconduct in the community. However,

from what the evidence gathered it suggests that police unlawfulness and crime could be reduced

if police departments created relationships with the community they worked in to address issues.

For example, “This involves the police identifying how higher education can help improve police

learning through the construction of competencies and role profiles while universities identify

the relevant teaching strategy to meet the police’s identified objectives” (Patterson, 2011). In

conclusion, lack of education and training play a small role in police shootings. It was evident

that much of police shootings are the result of prejudices and racial profiling towards minority

groups. It is imperative to find and create a solution that creates a bridge between law enforcer’s

and minorities to prevent and fully detain any further harm. Of course, in any scenario, further

education can help properly inform both officers and the community, society should attack the

problem at the root of the issue, management. That way, we don’t expect our enforcers to do the

right thing without their superiors giving them the appropriate orders.
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