Patterns of Force: The Relationship Between Officer-Involved Homicides of Black and Hispanic Citizens and Metropolitan Residential Segregation

Abstract

The increase in the prevalence of highly publicized police officer-involved homicides (OIHs) of Black and Hispanic community members has eroded trust in law enforcement. This study posits that these OIHs are a manifestation of the structural disparities resulting from racial/ethnic segregation in metropolitan areas. We use Poisson panel Generalized Linear Mixed-Effects Models to estimate this relationship with data from the Fatal Encounters project, American Community Survey, and various police department data sources. These models demonstrate that segregation characterized by the uneven distribution of Blacks to Whites is positively related to Black OIHs. Likewise, segregation characterized by the uneven distribution of Hispanics to Whites is positively associated with Hispanic OIHs. Meanwhile, the isolation of Blacks from Whites is negatively related to OIHs, and the isolation of Hispanics from Whites has no significant association with OIHs. These diverging relationships indicate the association of segregation to OIHs is more nuanced than previously argued.