Stop-and-Frisk, Plainclothes Policing in Poor, Minority Communities Part of Problem in Police Shootings, Analysis Shows

Newswise — Better discipline and training are part of the solution in reducing the number of police shootings, but they are unlikely to make a dramatic difference by themselves, a legal expert found in an analysis of Chicago police shootings.

The relationships between police shootings and stop-and-frisk, plainclothes policing and other enforcement tactics used in poor, minority communities should be critically examined, said Nirej Sekhon, an assistant professor of law at Georgia State University's College of Law.

In an analysis of 259 Chicago police shootings that occurred between 2006 and 2014, Sekhon found that nearly 90 percent occurred in minority neighborhoods.

“The connection between neighborhood violence and police shootings would make sense if shooting victims consisted exclusively of persons who were suspected of violent crime,” Sekhon said.

But that’s often not the case. And in almost a quarter of the 259 incidents, police actions led to the shootings. The encounters began as traffic stops for minor violations, because someone made a “furtive movement,” or just looked suspicious. Many of these stops were likely of the controversial “stop and frisk” variety, he said.

Plainclothes officers were responsible for nearly 40 percent of on-duty shootings in the incidents reviewed. There is evidence from other departments that such officers are, per capita, responsible for more shootings than uniformed officers, Sekhon said. The shootings in these situations follow a general pattern, Sekhon said. The stopped civilian flees, and police chase after them. During or immediately after the chase, officers shoot in response to a perceived gun threat.

The question we need to ask, the legal expert said, is whether the initial stop should have occurred at all, and, if so, whether a chase was justified, given the harmlessness of the misconduct that precipitated the initial stop.

“In my view, not all of these chases were necessary,” Sekhon said. “We expect officers to chase and subdue a murder suspect who fires shots at officers, but we ought to feel differently when officers chase and shoot a young black man whose only offense was ‘looking in the officers’ direction’ or ‘grabbing his…waistband and turning away.’”

So while there is nothing wrong with more aggressive discipline and providing better training, he said, focusing on how individual officers manage critical incidents overlooks an important question.

“We shouldn’t just ask how officers might best manage suspects during an encounter, but why certain police-civilian encounters occur at all,” Sekhon said.

To answer that requires thinking critically about departmental choices in particular neighborhoods, not just individual officers’ choices in particular cases, he said.

To obtain a copy of the analysis, please visit http://ssrn.com/abstract=2700724.

Sekhon teaches Criminal Procedure and Criminal Law, and his research focuses on the relationships between criminal procedure, criminalization, and political culture. For more information about Sekhon, including links to publications, visit http://law.gsu.edu/profile/nirej-sekhon.

You can read the full story of Sekhon’s findings at https://theconversation.com/chicago-police-shooting-data-may-reveal-new-ways-to-reduce-deaths-and-racial-disparity-54625.