Race And The Psychology Of Police Shootings

Can training be used to counter potentially deadly racial stereotypes?

While the great majority of police shootings are necessary and often heroic, news reports still tell of questionable shootings. Most frequently the victims are young, black men, who many say would not have been shot had they been white.

However, a study published in this month's Journal of Personality and Social Psychology shows that members of the police force are in fact less likely to make the decision to shoot based on race than the average person.

In a video simulation, 113 officers from around the United States, 124 Denver police officers and 135 Denver civilians were told to shoot armed targets or respond to unarmed targets with a "don't shoot" response as quickly as possible. In both timed and untimed trials, police outperformed their civilian counterparts on speed and accuracy. Furthermore, they did not show a racial bias in their shootings, unlike civilians, who were more likely to shoot an unarmed Black target than an unarmed White target. Interestingly, both officers and civilians took longer to respond to black targets than white.

In a trial that allowed civilians to practice and refine their skills over two days, they made fewer errors based on race and were better able to identify armed and non-armed targets.

While the evidence these studies provide for racial stereotypes among the general population may come as little surprise, they give hope that through increased police training, this psychology can be reprogrammed for non-biased results in these critical situations.

Read more: Study tracks race, police shootings