Introduction

Although police brutality is a problem around the whole world, it is a very prominent problem in modern United States society. According to the article, “Police Violence: is it on the rise,” it states, “According to a 2014 report by the FBI, violent crime among citizens was down, but civilians being killed by the police had risen. The 1.16 million incidents of violent crime in 2013 was the lowest in any reported year since 1978. That same year, incidents of civilians being killed by police numbered a reported range of 461 to 1,700, depending on the research you looked at.” For a year with an all-time low in crime since 1978, it is very ironic police violence cases were at a major increase during the same year. Police violence cases have been spreading all over the news and social media countless amounts of people constantly sharing it. People are always talking about the issue and has raised a lot of concern for the citizens. According to the article, “Police Brutality,” police brutality is usually focused on weaker groups like poor people, elderly. They also focus on minority groups like African Americans and Hispanics. According to the article, “Police killings, brutality damaging mental health of black community,” by Lisa Thurau, police violence his has caused people to mistrust police officers and causes stress and mental unstableness among the minority groups, primarily African Americans.

A major cause of police brutality is racism in the police force. Racism is when someone feels superior to a group of people based on their race. Although we don’t want to believe this it is the truth. Majority of the recent cases dealing with police brutality is usually a white police officer attacking an unarmed African American male. This should not be a problem in modern society, but it is. An additional cause of police violence is the inexperience of the police officers. This can be a result of lack of training by the law enforcement agencies. It can also be a result of the lack of experience the police officer has on field. These problems should be fixed by the law enforcement agencies themselves to prevent these unnecessary cases from occurring and to protect the citizens of this country. There are multiple changes that are available for law enforcement agencies to use, all they have to do is act on it. The problem of police violence should be extinguished as fast as possible because police officers should be protecting us rather than causing us harm.

 

Racism and Police Brutality

Racism is probably the biggest cause of police violence. Police officers are more likely to stop a person of color, rather than a white person. The scholarly article, “Racism and Police Brutality in America,” by Cassandra Chaney and Ray V. Robertson, states, “A growing body of scholarly research related to police brutality has revealed that Blacks are more likely than

Whites to make complaints regarding police brutality (Smith and Holmes 2003), to be accosted while operating a motorized vehicle (“Driving While Black”), and to underreport how often they are stopped due to higher social desirability factors (TomaskovicDevey et al. 2006).” This conveys that police violence is targeted more often at African Americans which is shown by multiple scholarly researches done recently on the issue. Additionally, Robertson and Chaney go on to state, “The survey, which involved approximately 978 non-Hispanic Whites and 1,010 Blacks, revealed a divergence in attitudes between Blacks and Whites concerning the criminal justice system (Tonry 2011). For instance, 38 % of Whites and 89 % of Blacks viewed the criminal justice system as biased against Blacks (Tonry 2011). Additionally, 8 % of Blacks and 56 % of Whites saw the criminal justice system as treating Blacks fairly (Tonry 2011).” This survey that was taken shows that majority of the people who believe that there is no problem of racism in the justice system are white, and majority of the people who do believe that the justice system is biased against African Americans are African American. This proves that racism exists within law enforcement because these studies are showing major evidence that the public perceives police officers to be biased against African Americans. Furthermore, the same article states, “Plant and Peruche (2005) provide some useful information into why police officers view Black males as potential perpetrators and could lead to acts of brutality. In their research, the authors suggest that since Black people in general, and Black males in particular, are caricatured as aggressive and criminal, police are more likely to view Black men as a threat which justifies the disproportionate use of deadly force. Therefore, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that police officers’ decisions to act aggressively may, to some extent, be influenced by race (Jefferis et al. 2011).” This shows that since the general stereotype of African Americans is “criminal” this cause police officers to be more aggressive when dealing with them. This proves that racism exists in the police force due to the fact that police act more aggressively towards African Americans based on the stereotype of their race.

 

Inexperience and Police Brutality

Another leading factor of police brutality is inexperience. An officer’s experience affect the way an encounter between a police officer and a citizen occurs. According to the scholarly article, “Police Education, Experience, and the Use of Force,” by Eugene Paoline, it states, “Bayley and Garofalo (1989), in a study of New York City patrol officers, found that experienced officers were identified by their peers as being the most skilled at dealing with conflict in encounters with citizens. The authors even contend that to the extent that police departments teach officers ways to manage violence, “skilled” officers should be the ones that conduct the training.” This shows that an officer with more experience usually handles encounters with citizens better than inexperienced ones. This will in effect reduce the urge and possibility of the officer using force on the citizen. Paoline goes on to say, “In addition, this study examines the impact and potential interactive effects that police experience plays in the use of force encounter. As Bayley and Bittner (1997) point out, “experience sharpens the ability to read potential violence in an encounter,” and “the experienced officer has learned when to relax and when to attack” (p. 121). This strongly suggests that experience affects the types and levels of coercion used by police.” This conveys that the experience an officer greatly impacts the use of violence in an encounter because it gives them a skill to detect any hostility in the encounter and whether or not force is necessary. Paoline then discusses the results of a study they conducted and states, “A further examination of these two less experienced groups in terms of verbal and physical force (Table 6) reveals a similar pattern to the general force/no-force finding. Here, however, we see that the distinction is primarily at the verbal force level (41.9% vs. 36.6%). All experience groups use physical force at a similar percentage (22% to 23%), except for the most experienced group (i.e., those with more than 10 years on the job), where force is used 15% of the time.” this shows that as a person gains more experience, they begin to use less physical force which will reduce the chances of a police violence case from occurring. This shows that inexperience causes police brutality because the more experience an officer is the less likely he/she is to use force.

Body Cameras Solve the Problem

One way to reduce police violence is the use of body worn cameras. A body camera is a tiny camera worn around the chest area of a police officer and it records what they do while they are on their shift. According to the Scholarly article, “The Effect of Police Body-Worn Cameras on Use of Force and Citizens’ Complaints Against the Police: A Randomized Controlled Trial,” by Barak Ariel, it states, “This was epitomized in a 2013 Manhattan Federal District Court ruling that ordered officers in a precinct of New York Police Department with the highest volume of stop-and-frisk to wear body-worn-cameras in order to prevent racial profiling.” This shows that some law enforcement agencies have already started using body cameras in order to racism. Ariel then states, “Several lines of research across many disciplines suggest that most species alter their behavior once aware they are being observed (Chartrand and Bargh 1999; Dzieweczynski et al. 2006; Jones and Nisbett 1971). A rich body of evidence on perceived social-surveillance—self-awareness (Wicklund 1975) and socially-desirable-responding (Paulhus 1988)—proposes that people adhere to social norms and change their conduct because of that cognizance that someone else is watching (Munger and Shelby 1989).” This conveys that since the officer knows they are being watched, they will start to act differently. This could help reduce the problem of inexperience by causing the officer to be reminded that he is being watched and to not act drastically by really thinking about how to handle the encounter. Ariel then discusses the results of his study and states, “We have also detected large before-after reductions in prevalence of incidents of use-of-force force (see Table 3; Fig. 1): 64.3 % reduction from 2009, 61.5 % from 2010, and 58.3 % from 2011,” This shows that the use of body cameras lead to a major decrease in use of force by more than 50%. This is a huge decrease and has a major effect on police violence. Therefore, body cameras should be issued to law enforcement agencies all over the United States as it could greatly reduce the amount of force used by police officers.

Although body cameras seem like the way to go, some argue that they shouldn’t be used because police officers will be less likely to use force when necessary. According to the Scholarly article, “Police Body-Worn Cameras: Perceptions of Law Enforcement Leadership,” by John Ortiz Smykla, it states, “Among the major perceptual findings are that command staff believe BWCs will impact police officers’ decisions to use force in encounters with citizens and police will be more reluctant to use necessary force in encounters with the public.” The message that this is being conveyed is that officials believe that body cameras will hinder officers from using force when necessary. However, this argument is invalid as there is no evidence to show this to be true. In fact, Smykla then goes on to say, “The majority of respondents (50 %) support the use of BWCs in their agencies while only one-third disagree or strongly disagree (M = 2.88; SD = 1.23). A majority (50 %) express a neutral position when asked if BWCs would improve police officer behavior during interactions with citizens, but one third agree or strongly agree (M = 2.75; SD = 0.85)…When asked if BWCs would make officers less likely to engage in proactive policing, no clear pattern emerged (M = 2.83; SD = 1.17).” this shows that majority of officials actually like the use of body cameras and believe that it has a positive effect. It also shows that the belief of body cameras hindering the use of necessary force is very random and rarely believed by most officials. Therefore body cameras should be placed into effect by all law enforcement agencies in the United States because they greatly decrease the use of force by police officers.

Conclusion

Therefore, racism and inexperience have a huge impact on police brutality. These are two major driving points that need to be extinguished in order to help prevent police officers from acting very violently against citizens. Racism is definitely present in the justice system as it is usually biased against African Americans. Inexperience is also a problem as it leads to new cops shooting, and sometimes killing, an innocent person. One possible way to change this is by the  use of body cameras in all law enforcement agencies in the United States. However, with racism and inexperience still being a problem in modern American society, it will be difficult to stop police violence.

 

WORKS CITED 

 

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Chaney, Cassandra, and Ray V. Robertson. “Racism and Police Brutality in America.”

SpringerLink, Springer, 12 Jan. 2013, link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12111-013-9246-5.

Paoline, Eugene A. “Police Education, Experience, and the Use of Force.” Journal of Research in

Crime and Delinquency, journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0093854806290239.

“Police Brutality.” Law Teacher, www.lawteacher.net/free-law-essays/criminology/police-

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“Police Violence: Is It on the Rise.” Crisis Intervention Teams In Law Enforcement, Criminal

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Smykla, John Ortiz, et al. “Police Body-Worn Cameras: Perceptions of Law Enforcement

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Thurau, Lisa H., and Johanna Wald. “Police Killings, Brutality Damaging Mental Health of

Black Community.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 15 Sept. 2018, www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/policing/spotlight/2018/09/14/police-brutality-damaging-black-communitys-mental-health/1218566002/.