The National Academy of Sciences has just published a study–“Officer characteristics and racial disparities in fatal officer-involved shootings.” In their introductory remarks, authors state, “We find no evidence of anti-Black or anti-Hispanic disparities across shootings, and White officers are not more likely to shoot minority civilians than non-White officers.”
This finding is consistent with other recent research. In 2018, the authors of “Do White Law Enforcement Officers Target Minority Suspects?” concluded, “Although minority suspects are disproportionately killed by police, white officers appear to be no more likely to use lethal force against minorities than nonwhite officers.” In 2016, the authors of “Do White Police Officers Unfairly Target Black Suspects?” found “no statistically significant difference between killings of black suspects by black and white officers.” And, also in 2016, the author of “An Empirical Analysis of Racial Differences in Police Use of Force” stated, “On the most extreme use of force – officer-involved shootings – we find no racial differences in either the raw data or when contextual factors are taken into account.”
H/T: Robert VerBruggen