Does an Increased Share of Black Police Officers Decrease Racial Discrimination in Law Enforcement?

Based on representative bureaucracy theory, the current study investigates whether increasing Black representation in police forces is negatively associated with racial discrimination in law enforcement. This study additionally investigates how associations may differ according to the organizational...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Urban affairs review (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) Calif.), 2023-03, Vol.59 (2), p.534-579
Main Author: Pyo, Sunyoung
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Arrests
Black people
Bureaucracy
Cultural change
Fatalities
Law enforcement
Longitudinal studies
Organizational aspects
Organizational change
Organizational culture
Organizational effectiveness
Organizational socialization
Police
Racial discrimination
Representation
Representations
Residents
Socialization
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Summary:Based on representative bureaucracy theory, the current study investigates whether increasing Black representation in police forces is negatively associated with racial discrimination in law enforcement. This study additionally investigates how associations may differ according to the organizational or environmental contexts of the forces. Results show that an increased share of Black officers is associated with decreased police-involved deaths of Black residents, but is not significantly associated with a change in order maintenance arrests of Black suspects. In addition, the negative association between Black representation and police-involved deaths of Black residents disappears when the percent of Black officers surpasses about 15 percent, especially in organizations where White officers comprise a larger share. These findings support the potential negative role of organizational socialization on the effectiveness of increasing the share of Black officers in policing, implying that additional long-term efforts to change organizational culture are needed to realize the benefits of enhancing Black representation.
ISSN:1078-0874
1552-8332
DOI:10.1177/10780874211070245