As Police Violence Increases, Civilians Less Likely to Call 911: Study

[BeckyDem]

By Andrea Cipriano | October 20, 2021



A mirror created by the group Visual Black Justice, installed in front of the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis, where Derek Chauvin stood trial in the death of George Floyd. Photo by Lorie Shaull via Flickr.


Examining detailed data from eight major American cities, a new research study from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government found that police violence reduces civilian trust and engagement with law enforcement.

In other words, as police violence and police brutality rates, and media attention increases, public trust plummets. As a consequence, communities stop relying on law enforcement for help.

The researchers, Desmond Ang from the Harvard Kennedy School, Panka Bencsik from the University of Chicago, Jesse Bruhn from Brown University, and Ellora Derenoncourt from Princeton University, examined the ratio between 911 call data and the number of gunshot occurrences for Baltimore, Cincinnati, Washington D.C., Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New York, Richmond, and San Diego, before and after the high-profile police killing of George Floyd.

https://thecrimereport.org/2021/10/20/as-police-violence-increases-civilians-less-likely-to-call-911-study/

[MenloParque]

1. I had to file a police report

When I had a backyard break-in. I opened the curtain and lit up the two guys with my bright flash light and my dogs started going crazy. The intruders took off but not before breaking my fence causing damage to one of my vehicles. The insurance required a police report. When the cops came they asked why I didn’t call 911. I laughed and said Don’t worry I took care of it without you assholes coming over and shooting my dogs!!

[BeckyDem]

2. Oh my goodness, I'm glad you're ok!

That is the thing about trust, when it is severely broken people won't immediately call the police.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

3. The last time I called the police...

... it was because a man and a woman were screaming at each other, with the woman sometimes shrieking like she was maybe being hurt. It went on and on, and I wasn't even sure where it was happening on my street because they were so loud that their yelling was echoing off the other homes and apartment buildings.

So I thought, "I was always taught to call the cops to help prevent a domestic situation from turning violent and the woman getting killed, so that's what I'll do."

But then the dispatcher terrified me with how she was handling my call. She was making absolutist statements like, "So domestic violence is happening on your street right now!", with me explaining that I DON'T KNOW! The continued yelling and shrieking simply has me concerned, and maybe a police officer could diffuse it?

Then she kept saying MY ADDRESS as the location of the domestic violence in progress, which only started after she'd requested my address and the address where the screaming was heard... which I didn't know exactly, except it was west of my address and anyone driving down my street would EASILY hear the screaming.

I finally told her to forget it! Just forget that I even called!

At that point she asked, "Are you telling me that you called 9-1-1 to falsely report a crime?"

Me: "No, lady! But you can't get the facts straight, so it's pointless! Goodbye!"

Then I kept looking down the street, worried that I'd see a police car. Then maybe a couple cops leaping out of it with their guns drawn because they were told about a "domestic violence IN PROGRESS" by that damn dispatcher.

No police cars, thankfully, and the yelling finally ended about 10 minutes later. (I assume they simply stopped on their own, without killing the other person.)

[BeckyDem]

7. That is scary but you described very well the sense of anxiety one can have when we are

experiencing such a disconnect! Especially when you really want to connect for the welfare of someone else.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

8. That couple was so insanely loud...

... and the occasional shrieks from the woman legitimately had me worried, and then the dispatcher just made it worse. (Maybe the woman was shrieking from anger/frustration? No idea.)

That happened maybe 10 years ago, during a hot Summer late-afternoon. So the couple's window might've been open in that heat, more easily sharing their dispute with the entire neighborhood.

[BeckyDem]

10. You were right to call for help. That the dispatcher created such a disconnect of trust

makes your decision to end the call perfectly reasonable.

[samsingh]

4. Calling the police is dangerous and death defying

they are likely to be the ones who kill you

[joetheman]

5. Wait until the citizens begin to fight back. That's my fear.

There are so many illegal weapons out there it is scary.

[BlueIdaho]

6. Fucking Cops...

There isn’t much that they can make worse just by showing up. 😡

[Elessar Zappa]

9. There are very few

situations in which I’d call a cop. They rarely help situations.

[Miguelito Loveless]

11. The odds of mean dialing 911 outside of an accident,

fire, or medical emergency is decidedly small.

[stillcool]

12. I called the police once...

when I had broken off a relationship and needed to get my stuff. They were very curious about everything, lots of touchy feely opening cabinets, going through my stuff, asking questions. First and last time I ever did that, and that was in 1975. Lots of cops in my extended family, and lots more that attended every family function. I've felt some empathy for some of what their jobs expose them to, but the over-bearing, macho-psycho stance is a barrier...a no-go zone for human to human contact.

[BeckyDem]

13. They creep you out instead of give you a feeling of protection.