Black Empowerment, Policy Comprehensiveness, and Civilians Killed by Police

A robust body of research suggests that Black individuals are disproportionate victims of lethal police violence. One potential explanation for this disparity is racial threat, which posits that the dominant group in society will impose coercive control tactics, such as police violence, particularly in contexts where large minority populations are perceived as threatening. However, others have argued that once a certain threshold of empowerment is met, minority groups will counter these attempts at social control. The current study examines the relationships between Black political empowerment, departmental use of force policies, and Black civilians killed by police. Findings suggest that greater political empowerment is associated with fewer killings of Black civilians, specifically when the agency has a Black chief and the proportion of Black officers reflects the city's Black resident population. We also find that agencies with a greater number of use of force policies experience fewer Black civilian fatalities by police, although this finding is slightly sensitive to model specification.