Getting Away with Murder: Obstacles to Police Accountability

Abstract

Despite the national attention police violence gained and the calls for police reform following the murder of George Floyd in 2020, police officers are killing more people each year. Significantly, although approximately one-half of the people shot and killed by police are white, black and Hispanic people are killed at higher rates than white people. One reason this assault on citizens continues is that very few roadblocks stand in the way of excessive violent policing. While any policing reform is beneficial, many discussed and enacted reforms are unlikely to significantly reduce police use of excessive force. Of all the police killings documented between 2013 and 2019, one data source found that only 1 percent of cases led to a conviction of a police officer. Many members of the public and some elected officials have argued that the excessive use of force by the police could be curtailed if more officers were held accountable for their actions, primarily their actions against innocent citizens. The authors of the chapters in this book subscribe to that view and discuss some significant reasons why and how police are not held accountable for their excessive use of force. This discussion is centered on four obstacles that stand in the way of getting accountability for police officers involved in cases of excessive police violence: Qualified immunity, the reasonable officer standard, police union contracts, and Law Enforcement Officers’ Bills of Rights. Of all the police killings documented between 2013 and 2019, one data source found that only 1 percent of cases led to a conviction of a police officer. This book discusses four obstacles that stand in the way of getting accountability for police officers involved in cases of excessive police violence: Qualified immunity, the reasonable officer standard, police union contracts, and Law Enforcement Officers’ Bills of Rights.