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This project will focus on the issue of police brutality and the impact that it has on society. First, we will learn what police brutality is and how often it occurs, while also touching on a few of the victims who lost their lives due to police brutality. We will conclude with learning about what is currently being done to address police brutality and what we can do to better address and prevent this problem.

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This column will explain a variety of reasons behind why police brutality may occur. Not every instance of police brutality is due to one of these reasons, but these are common themes seen when attempting to explain the brutal act of police brutality.

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Having a career as a police officer is intrinsically stressful due to the danger your life is in every day when you go to work. Occupational stress is "the ongoing or progressing stress an employee experiences due to the responsibilities, conditions, environment, or other pressures of the workplace" ("What is Occupational," n.d.). Police officers experience heightened levels of both physical and mental stressors compared to most other people throughout their daily lives. The brain responds to perceived stressors as a form of self preservation when under stressful situations. The fight or flight response that people experience when under high stress can lead to lower situational awareness as well as tunnel vision. This natural response to a perceived threat may lead to distorted judgment when making a split second decision (Silverman, 2022). Unfortunately though, a split second of tunnel vision for a police officer can lead to a the death of a civilian or the use of unwarranted force in a situation that may not call for it.

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Racial discrimination and implicit bias are factors that unfortunately often play a part in acts of police brutality. Discrimination is the unjust treatment of certain groups of people due to their sex, race, or other personal factors and implicit bias is "a form of bias that occurs automatically and unintentionally, that nevertheless affects judgments, decisions, and behaviors" (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2022). In communities that are underfunded or mostly consist of people of color, police officers may be more willing to use force due to any preconceived ideas they have before they even arrive. African Americans and the Black community especially are disproportionally affected by police brutality. Studies have shown that Black men are 2.5 times more likely to be killed by police than white men are in their lifetime (Peeples, 2020). Other data from California show that police stop and use force against Black people disproportionately compared to other racial groups (Peeples, 2020). This evidence shows that, whether conscious or unconscious, the police are more likely to target Black people due to their race than any other race.

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This column will explain what police brutality is as a whole and provide different examples of acts that can be defined as police brutality.

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This column will provide statistics about police brutality. These statistics will focus on the prevalence of police brutality and who the most common victims are.

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This column will discuss how police brutality impacts society as a whole, not only those who have lost their lives or a loved one. Seeing the brutal reality that those who are intended to serve society can so quickly kill someone without valid reason, has many negative effects on society, mostly on the communities that most closely relate to this issue.

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This column will explain possible solutions that can be found to prevent and stop police brutality. This is a major issue that needs to be prevented so no more innocent people lose their lives.

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This column will focus on telling the stories of several victims who died due to police brutality.

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The Police Brutality Center gathered information about police brutality in this article containing statistics about this issue. Some statistics are listed below while many more can be found in the article above.
- Police killings are not increasing, but they are not decreasing either. Roughly 1,000 people are killed by police every year, and this number has remained consistent for the past 10 years.
- The police in the United States kill people at a rate 3 times higher than Canadian police and 60 times higher than the police in England and Wales.
- Hispanic Americans are 2 times more likely to be killed than white Americans while Black Americans are 2.5 times more likely to be killed than white Americans.
- Over 95% of people shot and killed by the police are male.
- Less than 2% of officers who kill someone are charged with a crime.

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Police Brutality Statistics: What the Data Says About Police Violence in America

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The most vital police brutality statistics on deaths from police violence by examining the most authoritative, independent data sources.

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Every year in the United States, over 1,000 civilians are victims of police brutality. Police Brutality is an important issue because it not only impacts those who are victims of these horrendous acts, it impacts the entire nation. When videos of people being killed in the hands of the police go viral, it instills fear in people across the United States. Watching someone die for no good reason in the hands of those who are there to protect society is traumatizing. Incidents of police brutality are not an uncommon occurrence yet no matter how many civilians die in the hands of police mistreatment, changes are not made the the same situations are seen over and over again. The power that police officers have is in place to keep communities safe, not cause them to live in fear of their lives. The people who are most impacted by police brutality are often those who could benefit from police protection the most. Police brutality is seen mostly against people of color and in high-crime neighborhoods, which is where civilians need the most protection from officers, not mistreatment. Without changes being made to the system, police brutality is an issue that will continue to carry on and ultimately take more lives.

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The definition of police brutality varies slightly deepening on the organization discussing it, but a general definition of police brutality is the use of excessive or unwarranted force on civilians by police officers. Police brutality can be seen in a wide variety of forms. Some of the acts that police brutality include are assault, negligence, torture, excessive harassment, false arrest, indiscriminate use of riot control against protestors, and unlawful killings ("Police Brutality is," 2022). This excessive use of force is a violation against the human rights of civilians and, despite being illegal, is still a prevalent problem in the United States today (Ochs & Gonzalzlez, 2023). The harmful and illegal actions that occur during encounters with the police define police brutality, however further injury and death can occur after victims are released from police custody.

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The statistics below are about police violence that occurred in 2022, but the link above is a comprehensive account of all deadly police violence in 2022. According to Mapping Police Violence (2022), the following occurred in regards to reported police brutality in 2022:
- 1,194 people were killed by police in 2022, more than any other year in the past decade.
- Officers were charged with a crime in only 9 of these cases, 1%.
- 597 of the 1,194 killings occurred when officers were responding to non-violent offenses or cases where no crime was committed.
- 86 of the 1,194 people were killed while being stopped for a traffic violation.
- 101 of the 1,194 people killed were completely unarmed.
- Black people were more likely to be killed by police and are disproportionately killed by police year after year. 26% of people killed by police in 2022 were black, despite making up only 12% of the United States population.
- 55% of killings by police in 2022 were at a traffic stops, police responses to mental health crises, or situations where the person was reported to be nonthreatening.

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Policies have been put in place in an attempt to decrease police brutality, but implementing further policies may help to decrease the numbers as well. Some policies currently in place are dash cameras in police cars, body cameras on officers, and police bias trainings (Ray, 2020). Dash cameras and body cameras keep record of police interactions and prevent officers from denying crimes that they have committed. Police bias trainings help officers to understand what implicit biases they have that they may not realize. Screening potential officers for any biases they may have will also help by preventing those with strong racial or sexual biases from becoming officers. Other policies that could be implemented to reduce police brutality are banning chokeholds, increasing the number of mental health professionals involved with law enforcement, and discouraging policing methods that may trigger implicit and explicit biases (Abrams, 2020). Another major policy change that needs to be made within police departments is requiring officers to be held accountable for their acts of brutality by charging them for the crimes they have committed against civilians and preventing them from becoming an officer again after these incidents, even in different jurisdictions.

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Watching scenes of police brutality unfold online or on the news strike fear into many who witness these acts. Police officers are intended to protect and serve but many people may feel they are not safe in the hands of these officers. For Black people and other people of color, watching the unjust killings of people who look like them or live in their neighborhoods is a jarring experience. When unarmed Black people are killed, it strikes fear in Black communities as they consider the fact that that could have been them. Innocent lives taken in the hands of the police limit the trust that society holds in them altogether. No one should fear for their life at a routine traffic stop, but unfortunately this is the reality that many people face on a daily basis.

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When beginning an interaction with a police officer, there is no way for a civilian to tell if they are what some may call a "good" police officer or a "bad" police officer. With videos of police brutality becoming more common, people may not be inclined to trust officers automatically like they should be able to. The poll shown above conducted by PBS in 2020 shows the lack of confidence that people, especially people of color, have the their local police departments (Santhanam, 2020). If someone is in need of help but they do not trust the police, this may ultimately lead them to being in more danger. It is the job of police officers to protect and serve their communities, but if the community does not trust them they will be unable to do their jobs to the best of their ability. The fear instilled in people due to the actions of some police officers prevents officers who actually want to help from doing their jobs while also giving them a bad reputation.

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An act of police brutality that shook the nation in 2020, the death of George Floyd is one that many are aware of. 46 year old George Floyd was arrested after he purchased cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill. 17 minutes after the first police officer arrived on the scene of his arrest, Floyd was pinned to the ground and unconscious, showing no signs of life. The four officers involved in his death were fired and later the one officer most involved in Floyd's death, Derek Chauvin, was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Chauvin pinned Floyd's neck to the ground with his knee for over 8 minutes with 1 of those minutes being when Floyd was already unconscious (Hill et al., 2020). A video of this brutal act of police brutality went viral and brought a lot of attention to the issue of police brutality.

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Police officers go through training in order to become an officer, but furthering this training may help to decrease cases of police brutality. By further training in deescalation strategies and how to handle a mental health crisis, many situations of police brutality may be avoided. Bias trainings should also be implemented to help make officers aware of any biases they may have while also screening officers for any concerning biases they may have.

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Police departments responses to police brutality play a part in the fact that this issue continues to occur. Accountability describes being required to justify one's actions or decisions. Officers of the law are not held fully accountable for their actions or penalized to the strongest degree of the law due to their status and role in society. Police officers can be seen not being held accountable for their actions in cases where officers accused of police brutality are fired but then later rehired by a different department and when officers who commit acts of police brutality are almost never convicted in court (Ray, 2020). Another situation that leads to acts of police brutality are where instances of misconduct are not taken seriously. In cases like the death of Eric Garner, the officer responsible for his death had been investigated for misconduct 7 times in the 5 years before Garner's death. Officers like this who are constantly under investigation should not be permitted to continue in their field of work because it puts civilians at risk.

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Although not killed in police custody, the death of 25 year old Freddie Gray was due to neglect and abuse he endured in the hands of Baltimore police officers. Freddie Gray was arrested for carrying a knife officers claimed was illegal, even though it was not (Barron & McDonell, 2017). He was restrained by a police officer on a bike and then placed into a transport van where he was found unconscious 45 minutes later. The brutal tactics used to restrain him resulted in his spinal cord being nearly severed and led to him being in a coma for 7 days until he ultimately passed away. In the video of his arrest, Gray can be seen with his legs dragging while he is screaming in pain and begging for medical attention. 6 officers were charged for the incidents that led to Gray's death, but none of them were convicted for their crimes (Barron et al., 2020). This led to an uproar of riots in Baltimore as many were rightfully disgusted that justice was not served.

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43 year old Eric Garner was placed in an illegal chokehold by NYPD after they approached him for selling cigarettes illegally. After getting into a confrontation with the officer, Garner was placed in a chokehold and then pinned to the ground where he stated "I can't breathe." Roughly an hour after being detained, he was pronounced dead at the hospital and his cause of death was determined to be homicide by suffocation. Despite the illegal tactics he used, Daniel Pantaleo, the officer who put Garner in a chokehold, was not indicted for his death. He was fired from the NYPD and it was later announced that he had investigated for misconduct 7 times in the 5 years before Garner's death ("Eric Garner dies in NYPD Chokehold," 2020).

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Tamir Rice is a 12 year old boy who was shot by a police officer while in the park he was playing by himself with a fake firearm. 9-1-1 was called with reports that someone was pointing a pistol at random people in the park. During this call, the caller stated that the gun was probably fake and that the person holding it was most likely a juvenile. The responding officers did not receive this information and within three seconds of arriving to the scene, Rice was shot by one of the officers ("Tamir Rice," n.d.). There was no time to assess the scene and no attempt for deescalation, the officers first instinct was to shoot. The officer who shot Rice was not indicted even though it was revealed that he was deemed to be an emotionally unstable recruit and unfit for duty.

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Despite explaining what happened to the four victims who were mentioned above, this does not even begin to show the number of people who have lost their lives due to police brutality. No one deserves to die due to police brutality, and oftentimes the arrests that lead to victims dying are not for serious crimes. They are small crimes and sometimes, like in the cases of Freddie Gray and Tamir Rice, a crime has not been committed at all. There are hundreds of people who die in the hands of the police every year and many of them never have their story told. Police brutality is a growing problem that continues to impact more people every day.

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Despite police brutality being such a prevalent problem in the United States today, not every police officer is a bad cop or even a bad person. The stigma that police brutality causes for police officers is bad for both them and society. It puts officers in danger because more people are against them, and it also puts civilians in danger because they are less inclined to call for help if they need it if they are anti-police. Police brutality is a serious issue and despite being a problem that has occurred for many years, no progress has been made in preventing it. By reforming the way police officers are trained and increasing reprimands for officers who abuse their power and put civilians in harm, there is hope that police brutality cases will decrease. The officers who are the perpetrators of police brutality need to be held accountable for their actions and not protected by fellow officers and their police departments. Victims of police brutality and their families deserve to receive justice and understand that the police are there to help and not to harm them. Under the current circumstances, that may not possible but hopefully the future will allow all people to feel protected by the police, including minorities and poor communities who may not feel that way currently.

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Human rights are the basic rights that are guaranteed in democratic societies, including the United States, such as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (Hagan & Diagle, 2023). Police brutality hinders these rights with the use of unwarranted and excessive force. When innocent people are harmed or killed in the hands of police officers, all three of these basic rights are taken away from them.