A new study shows that an oft-prescribed solution to ending police shootings of black males would actually increase the amount of black victims at the hands of police.
The Washington Post reported Thursday on a paper, “Will More Black Cops Matter?,” which will appear in Public Administration Review next month. The study was authored by researchers at Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs.
One of the study’s authors, Sean Nicholson-Crotty, said, “Police organizations that have higher percentages of black officers are likely to have more police-involved homicides of black citizens, until they reach a critical mass.”
The Post story included a graph, which showed that the amount of police killings of blacks levels off when black officers comprise 40 percent of a department, but there isn’t a sharp decrease.
Nicholson-Crotty told the Post that the lack of a decrease of killings of black citizens when there are more black police officers is due to the fact black police officers wouldn’t want to be seen as going against the organization by advocating for black citizens.
He said that police “have a dangerous job and as a result, they really stick together and look out for and defend one another.” A previous study has shown that black officers are more likely than their white colleagues to racially profile against black individuals.
The Obama administration and Black Lives Matter activists have both advocated for police departments to hire more black officers.