The power of protest on policing: Black Lives Matter protest and civilian evaluation of the police

Abstract

In 2020, police brutality against Black Americans catalyzed Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests across all 50 states. Though BLM protests continue to permeate society, few scholars explore how these protests change Americans' perceptions of the police. To investigate this phenomenon more meticulously, we administered an online survey experiment—oversampling Black American participants—to measure how protest culture, specifically BLM protests, influences civilians' perceptions of the police. Our survey found that (1) Black American participants have a lower evaluation of police performance, but a higher evaluation of the BLM Movement than White American participants; (2) the presence of a general protest negatively impacts peoples' perception of safety, police trustworthiness, and police performance; and (3) a BLM protest casts a stronger effect on White American participants than on Black American participants. Using Critical Race Theory and QuantCrit these findings suggest that the visibility of BLM protests changes both Black and White perceptions of the police to varying degrees.

Use of Performance Information and External Accountability: The Role of Citizen Oversight in Mitigating the Motivated Evaluation of Body-Worn Camera Evidence

“…Even if a COA does not have the authority to review BWC footage in a particular instance, there is the possibility that it may acquire it in the future. Given that COAs often have the authority to conduct retrospective reviews or audits of police practices and records (De Angelis et al, 2016;Walker & Archbold, 2019, Wright et al, 2023, it is possible that they could, at some point, gain access to BWC footage that was heretofore unavailable. 4 Police supervisors would consider this possibility and be induced into being more mindful of accuracy goals when evaluating BWC footage when a COA exists.…”

Justice in Black and Brown: The impact of political control and representative bureaucracy on street level outcomes

“…The extant evidence regarding the effect of representative bureaucracy (Hypothesis 2) is even more nuanced. Substantively, the area of criminal justice and law enforcement has consistently found evidence of representative bureaucracy in the case of gender (Meier & Nicholson‐Crotty, 2006; Shoub et al, 2021) but decidedly mixed or even negative findings for race (Gilad & Dahan, 2021; Headley & Wright II, 2020; Hong, 2017; Kennedy et al, 2017; Wilkins & Williams, 2008, 2009; Wright et al, 2022) except at very high levels of representation (Nicholson‐Crotty et al, 2017). Few studies have examined the impact of law enforcement leadership, the focus of this study, and those have shown little impact (Johnston & Houston, 2018).…”

Anger, Fear, and the Racialization of News Media Coverage of Protest Activity

“…Importantly, this coverage fueled questions about Black people’s right to protest (Morgan 2006). Simply reading a news story about a protest with mostly Black (relative to White) protesters or characterized as a Black Lives Matter protest (relative to an undefined protest) leads to more negative evaluations of protest, including perceptions that the protest was more violent and requires more policing (Manekin and Mitts 2022; Wright et al 2023). It is difficult to understate the effects of these patterns on American democracy.…”