Larger police forces in predominantly black cities have been shown to reduce homicide rates while increasing the number of low-level arrests at the same time, according to a new study.
With the National Bureau of Economic Research, researchers from four different universities examined how increasing the size of police forces in urban areas affects communities based on race and found that black communities are both under and over-served by authorities meant to protect them.
According to their findings, published on Monday, large police forces simultaneously keep the homicide rate down, while increasing petty arrests, which primarily affect black people.
“Based upon the historical opportunity cost of police employment, our estimates suggest that ‘defunding’ the police could result in more deaths, especially in among Black Americans,” they wrote. “Of course, reducing funding for police could allow increased funding for other alternatives.”
The researchers found that every additional “police officer hired abates between 0.06 and 0.1 homicides,” resulting in “one life saved per 10-17 police officers hired.” The reduction is roughly equal for black and white citizens, although the per capita numbers show that the decline in homicides is “twice as large for Black victims.”
They also found that “investments in police manpower lead to larger numbers of low-level ‘quality of life’ arrests, with effects that imply a disproportionate burden for Black civilians who are arrested.” The study noted that approximately 60% of people arrested for “quality of life” offenses are white, but, on a per capita basis, black civilians account for 70% more arrests.
“We find evidence that benefits of policing in terms of reduced homicides accrue for both Black and white civilians,” said Benjamin Hansen, one of the researchers, who works in the Department of Economics at the University of Oregon. “We see more reductions in homicide as more police are added. However, the reductions are not nearly as large in the cities with the largest Black populations.”
The data was collected from 242 “large” U.S. cities from 1981-2018 and exclusively focused on cities that had a population greater than 50,000 in 1980.
The issue of policing became a hot topic in 2020 following the deaths of a handful of unarmed black people at the hands of the police, including George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Their deaths, combined with a handful of similar incidents, sparked nationwide protests during the spring and summer months. Those protesters sought to raise awareness about police brutality and systemic racism, and many urged elected officials to “defund the police.”
A handful of cities nationwide, including Minnesota, where Floyd died after a police officer pinned him down by the neck for nearly nine minutes, have voted to decrease their city’s police budget despite increased criminal activity.
