What the data say about police brutality and racial bias — and which reforms might work

What the data say about police brutality and racial bias — and which reforms might work

The evidence-backed path to fairer policing

Some disturbing findings are coming in from long-running studies that were spurred by protests in 2014 after the deadly shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and the death of Eric Garner by chokehold in New York City. About 1,000 civilians are killed each year by law-enforcement officers in the United States. By one estimate, Black men are 2.5 times more likely than white men to be killed by police during their lifetime. In another study, of those who were fatally shot by police, Black people were more than twice as likely to have been unarmed than white people. “We have enough evidence that tells us that action needs to be taken,” says criminologist Justin Nix. “One thousand deaths a year does not have to be normal.”

Nature | 11 min read