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Since the Minneapolis PD killed George Floyd, I’ve studied how police militarization increases killings by police. We published our story today.
We found that Georgia departments accepting military equipment from the DoD killed 5 times as many people. https://www.ajc.com/news/police-killings-more-likely-in-agencies-that-get-military-gear-data-shows/MBPQ2ZE3XFHR5NIO37BKONOCGI/
We found that Georgia departments accepting military equipment from the DoD killed 5 times as many people. https://www.ajc.com/news/police-killings-more-likely-in-agencies-that-get-military-gear-data-shows/MBPQ2ZE3XFHR5NIO37BKONOCGI/
We controlled for everything you can think of and the effect remains.
Departments taking ammunition, guns, military vehicles, and advanced communications equipment killed 5 times as many people.
Departments taking ammunition, guns, military vehicles, and advanced communications equipment killed 5 times as many people.
One of the amazing findings is that even in violent areas, militarized police kill more.
The grey areas show people killed at different crime levels. Top green grey area is militarized, bottom red is not.
At every level of violent crime militarized departments kill more people
The grey areas show people killed at different crime levels. Top green grey area is militarized, bottom red is not.
At every level of violent crime militarized departments kill more people
What does a police department need with a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle?
As one person told me: “I’ve never seen a mine in my town.”
And if you think there are mines and ambushes lying in wait, eventually, your mentality has to change to one of being under assault
As one person told me: “I’ve never seen a mine in my town.”
And if you think there are mines and ambushes lying in wait, eventually, your mentality has to change to one of being under assault
As @EdwardLawsonJr put it to me, this equipment supports the belief by police that they’re part of an occupying army in a community fighting the War on Drugs/Crime/Terror
He has a nice description of the mechanism of his paper, and it’s worth reading: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1065912918784209
He has a nice description of the mechanism of his paper, and it’s worth reading: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1065912918784209
I do have one big “regret.” Because departments are reported by county (not census tract), we couldn’t properly use race data.
So while there’s so much evidence that Black people are killed at much higher rates, our work can’t speak to that https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/police-shootings-database/
So while there’s so much evidence that Black people are killed at much higher rates, our work can’t speak to that https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/police-shootings-database/
As usual, all of my code and a methodology is on Github. This is something I think we’ll find anywhere we look, and I’d love if people re-used this. https://github.com/nthieme/AJC_work/blob/master/1033_full_pipeline.md
