Resources

This report is a summary of the data collection and outreach efforts conducted on behalf of the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) to gather community and PPB insights in preparation for the creation of PPB’s strategic plan. The purpose of this outreach was to assess the Portland community’s and PPB staff’s perception of the current state of policing in Portland and help determine the priorities that these groups would like to see emphasized over the next five years.

High-profile cases of police violence — disproportionately experienced by black men — may present a serious threat to public safety if they lower citizen crime reporting. This report analyzes how one of Milwaukee’s most publicized cases of police violence against an unarmed black man, the beating of Frank Jude, affected police-related 911 calls, and found that residents of Milwaukee’s neighborhoods, especially residents of Black neighborhoods, were far less likely to report crime after Jude’s beating was broadcast. The effect lasted for over a year and resulted in a total net loss of approximately 22,200 calls for service. Other local and national cases of police violence against unarmed black men also had a significant impact on citizen crime reporting in Milwaukee. Police misconduct can powerfully suppress one of the most basic forms of civic engagement: calling 911 for matters of personal and public safety.

Researchers reevaluate the claim from Bor et al. (2018) that “police killings of unarmed Black Americans have effects on mental health among Black American adults in the general population.” The Mapping Police Violence data used by the authors misclassified 93 incidents and note that correctly recoding these incidents eliminated the reported statistically significant effect of exposure to police killings of unarmed Black individuals on the mental health of Black Americans in the general population.

In this report, researchers examined data on police killings with individual-level data to estimate the impact of police killings of unarmed Black Americans on self-reported mental health of other Black American adults in the US general population. Results support the idea that police killings of unarmed Black Americans have adverse effects on mental health among Black American adults in the general population. Researchers also recommend implementing programs to decrease the frequency of police killings and to mitigate negative mental health effects within communities when such killings occur.

California’s passage into law of Senate Bill 1421 allows for the public disclosure of investigations into police officers for misconduct (e.g., use of force, lying, sexual assault, etc.). Additionally, Assembly Bill 748 contains new disclosure provisions, broadly allowing audio and video recordings of “critical incidents” to be released to the public. This paper is intended to inform readers about the new laws, what they cover, how to respond to California Public Records Act requests for disclosable records, and how to deal with competing viewpoints regarding interpretation of the statutes.

Native peoples’ experiences of law enforcement violence are often completely erased from mainstream discussions of police brutality and immigrant rights. Yet, since the arrival of the first colonists on this continent, Native women and Native Two Spirit, transgender and gender nonconforming people have been subjected to untold violence at the hands of U.S. military forces, as well as local, state and federal law enforcement. This toolkit provides examples and detail of the mistreatment of Native peoples at the hands law enforcement and further resources on the topic.

Police departments are adopting body-worn cameras in hopes of improving civilian–police interactions. In a large-scale field experiment (2,224 officers of the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, DC), researchers randomly assigned officers to receive cameras or not. They tracked subsequent police behavior for a minimum of 7 months using administrative data. Results indicate that cameras did not meaningfully affect police behavior on a range of outcomes, including complaints and use of force. This report conclude that the effects of cameras are likely smaller than many have hoped.

An encounter with the police can make us freeze up or “leave” our bodies in the moment. Repeated over time, experiences of aggression or harm at the hands of police can seem to pile up and keep us from feeling and acting like ourselves. This guide exists to help you stay connected to yourself, your streets and your support system so you can communicate what you need in these situations.

Born of the passion of neighborhood mothers outraged at the NYPD’s treatment of their sons, this report spent two years documenting experiences of policing in a 40-block community near Yankee stadium. The collaborative research team of neighborhood residents in the South Bronx and members of the Public Science Project, the CUNY Graduate Center, John Jay College, and Pace University Law Center conducted focus groups of local residents, creating and analyzing a comprehensive survey that was distributed throughout the neighborhood. 1,030 residents took the survey, sharing their attitudes and experiences with police. These are the results.