Abstract:
George Floyd’s death significantly shifted public opinion as 76% of Americans (including 71% of Whites) agreed that incidents such as the killing of Floyd are signs of racism within law enforcement. This racial awakening and acknowledgement of racism is further confirmed by police brutality inflicted onto protestors and highlighted in the killings of Breonna Taylor and Duante Wright. While the public outcry often includes the views of the general public, missing, especially in the academic literature, are police officers themselves as well as a proper evaluation of use of force and proposed reforms (such as defund the police). Over the past several years, Ray, along with colleagues in The Lab for Applied Social Science Research, collected interview, survey, social media, and virtual reality data with police officers, activists, and civilians. He has also built state- and city-level databases on police reform legislation. Collectively, his findings show how “structural implicit bias” contributes to racial disparities in policing vis-à-vis the organizational embeddedness of racism within the origins and functions of law enforcement. Ray’s research indicates that police reforms focused on implicit bias trainings and body-worn cameras fall short because they do not address how the structural, cultural, and organizational components of policing obstruct accountability and contribute to over-policing, racial profiling, and racial disparities in policing killings. Ray posits that a series of evidence-based policy prescriptions that focus on reallocating and shifting funding within police department budgets along with innovative trainings using virtual reality technology and wellness programs for officers can help transform policing in America.