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BLACK AMERICA BRUISED IN BLACK & BLUE:

THE DIVERSIFICATION OF OFFICERS IN LAW ENFORCEMENT AND OFFICER-

INVOLVED SHOOTING REDUCTION

By

Angelica Jordan, M.L.P.P., M.L.S.

A doctoral thesis

Presented to the Graduate Faculty of the Doctor of Law and Policy Program

at Northeastern University

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Law and Policy

Under the supervision of Dr. Ali Raisi & Dr. Theodore R. Johnson III

College of Professional Studies Northeastern University Boston, Massachusetts

[May 24th, 2021]

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DEDICATION

First, without God, nothing is possible, so all credit goes to the highest for bestowing the strength to get through this program while working as a Residence Director supporting thousands of students and faculty in the Northeastern Boston campus community before, during, and God willing after a national pandemic. I dedicate this work to the many influencers in my life, with the first being my parents – Theodore and Sharon Jordan – and the second to my namesake, my great grandmother who migrated from Antigua, Frances Agatha Warner. To my father who instilled ‘Living in 3D Principle – Dedication, Determination, & Discipline’: Being dedicated to your vision, being determined to see it through no matter how tough life gets and having the discipline to embrace the challenges for they strengthen your focus and your eventual success. To my mother, who taught passion, perseverance, unwavering sacrifice, and the significance of truthful advocacy. I also dedicate an abundance of love and gratitude to my 4- year-old Lhasa Apso Curi(osity), my biggest fan, who slept at my side through each all-nighter and barked with fiery cheer and effortless loyalty.

The second influencers are all of my educators in The Bronx, N.Y.C. – C.E.S. 230, I.S.

229, University Heights High School, and Northeastern University. Lastly, this work is dedicated to the Black and Brown communities sharing complex intersectional identities as community members and law enforcement officers alike seeking transformative healing in repairing centuries of harm, searching for justice, accountability, and reprieve from discriminatory abuses of power, privilege, and positionality in government at the local, state, and federal level.

Moreover, this work is dedicated to the countless hours of blood, sweat, and tears to those looking to make an active difference in their community through altruistic leadership and academic scholarship.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

An abundance of acknowledgment goes to Ms. Christine Oka as the Research Librarian for African American Studies and co-research Librarian for the Doctor of Law & Policy

Program. Christine has supported my lengthy journey in academia since I was an Honor’s student defending my very first senior capstone on racial disparities in New York City policing ten years ago; my first Master’s degree in Law & Public Policy on police reform four years ago, and provided unconditional resources to support my pursuit as the first doctorate in my family to engage in future academic discourse on the significance of racial disparities and double- consciousness in policing the Black community from Black voices in power. I cannot fully express my gratitude in words. Still, please know that every single e-mail and every available resource influenced the continuation of my collegiate journey in insurmountable ways – Thank you!

To my DLP committee members, Dr. Raisi, Dr. Ted Johnson, and Dr. Hakimdavar, &

Cohort 13, thank you all for your dedication and commitment as educators, influencers, and critical thinkers to always force the researcher to answer the question – Why? A huge ‘Thank

You’ to the Massachusetts Association for Minority Law Enforcement Officers (MAMLEO),

Sergeant Farrell from the Northeastern University Police Department, Director of the African

American Institute Dr. Richard O’Bryant, VP Diversity & Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer for the University of New Haven Dr. Lorenzo Boyd, Boston Police Department’s Deputy

Superintendent Marcus Eddings, my Mentor, Dr. Emmett G. Price III, and the Black law enforcement participants for their vulnerability, and more importantly, their trust to allow for the opportunity to advocate for systemic changes to improve police-community relations and support workforce diversity retention.

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ABSTRACT

Police-community relations between law enforcement and Black communities are and have been further damaged due to a series of controversial events involving recent use-of-force measures initiated by predominantly White police officers and applied to predominantly Black men, women, and children across a thirty-year span. Law enforcement agencies cite legal non- compliance as the source of escalated actions. Simultaneously, communities of color attribute racial discrimination as the primary factor towards police misconduct and have subsequently initiated calls to action, in the form of civil and uncivil protests, to local, state, and federal government sectors for immediate reform. In response to shared concerns raised by law enforcement and communities of color, in 2011, a task force created by the Obama

Administration confirmed lack of diversity and lack of consistent cultural competency training as major influencers and recommended increasing Black police enrollment percentages – as a potential solution towards mitigating racial tensions and legitimizing policing efficacy. In conjunction with these findings, the 116th and 117th Congress proposed several bills addressing police accountability, training, independent review, and data transparency. However, there is an ongoing debate in academia regarding whether an association between the increase of Black police officers and officer-involved shooting reduction exists. Therefore, using a phenomenological approach to interview 10 Black Boston police officers, findings revealed an association between Black police officer’s involvement in police diversity initiatives and officer- involved shooting reduction exists.

Keywords: Diversification of Officers in Law Enforcement (D.O.L.E.), Officer-Involved

Shooting, Qualified Immunity, Critical Race Theory and Phenomenology.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1: Introduction ...... 8

Background and Context...... 9

Problem Statement………………………………………………………………………...... 10

Purpose of the Study…………………………………………………………………………11

Research Question ………………………………………………………..………………....12

Theoretical Framework……………...…………………….…………………………………12

Definitions…………………………………………………………………………………....18

Assumptions………………………………………………………………………………….19

Scope and Delimitations……………………………………………………………………..20

Limitations…………………………………………………………………………………...21

Significance………………………………………………………………………………….22

Summary……………………………………………………………………………………..23

Chapter 2: Literature Review ...... 23

Literature Search Strategy...... 24

Literature Related to Key Concepts…………….……………………………………………25

Summary……………………………………………………………………………………..48

Chapter 3: Research Methodology ...... 49

Research Design and Rationale ...... 50

Methodology ...... 51

Positionality Statement………………………………………………………………………52

Participants…………………………………………………..……………………………....54

Data Analysis Plan…………...……………….…………………………………………...…59

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Trustworthiness………………………………………………………………….……....61

Ethical Procedures…………………………………………………………………….....63

Summary…………………………………………………………………………………65

Chapter 4: Results ...... 65

Description of the Data ...... 65

Description of the Data Analysis Process ...... 66

Description of Findings……………………………………………………………………...68

Summary...………………………………………………..……………………………...... 80

Chapter 5: Recommendations and Conclusions ...... 82

Summary of the Research Results ...... 82

Discussion of the Research Results ...... 90

In relation to the theoretical framework / conceptual framework

In relation to the literature

Limitations of the Study and Impact on Results ...... 94

Implications of the Reesarch Findings for Practice

Implications of the Research Findings for Future Research

Conclusion

References (for APA) ...... 107

Appendix A ...... 128

Appendix B ...... 133

Appendix C ...... 134

Appendix D ...... 135

Appendix E ...... 141

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1. Data Management Plan ……………………………………………………………..106

ACRONYMS

BPD Boston Police Department

CRT Critical Race Theory

DOLE Diversification of Officers in Law Enforcement

FBI Federal Bureau of Investigations

FOIS Fatal Officer Involved Shooting

HLS Harvard Law School

IPA Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis

IRB Internal Review Board

LEEP Law Enforcement Enterprise Portal

LEMAS Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics

MAMLEO Massachusetts Association for Minority Law Enforcement Organization

MGL Massachusetts General Law

NOBLE National Organization for Black Law Enforcement

NUPD Northeastern University Police Department

PNAS Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

UCR Uniform Crime Report

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Chapter 1

Being Black in America is hard when skin color dictates human capital values within society, such as accessibility to good quality healthcare (Bridges n.d.; Institute of Medicine

2003), education (American Psychological Association 2012; Riddle & Sinclair 2019), and equitable work wages (Darity Jr. 1982). These challenges are exacerbated when a routine act of walking or driving home may deprive one the opportunity to live another day due to asphyxiation by chokehold or kneecap, or fatally inflicted gunshot wounds not by criminal deviants but from police officers (see Appendix A). Controversial high-profile incidents between

Black Americans and White police officers cultivate significant distrust in policing that prompted protests in the United States and across the globe (Montolio 2018; National Academies of Science, Engineering, & Medicine 2018; Taub 2020). External calls to action in the form of protests demand police reform, but what happens when protests occur internally within law enforcement's infrastructure? Specifically, can the proactive recruitment and hiring of Black

Americans into policing reduce the risk of disproportionate Black fatalities in officer-involved encounters? If so, how?

This study discusses the diversification of officers in law enforcement and whether the increased presence of Black Americans recruited, hired, and trained into policing influences less officer-involved uses-of-force fatalities. To further understand the severity of the problem, prior literature suggests Black American police officers' narratives as highly influential to curtailing

Black Americans' continuous bruising (Bolton 2003; Bolton & Feagin 2007; Wilson et al. 2015;

Wilson et al. 2016). Moreover, their stories empower policymakers to prioritize workforce diversity improvement, create and uphold accountability metrics for unauthorized use of force, and restore policing's legitimacy beginning with the preservation of Black lives.

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Background

The creation of this study comes at a time where America is extremely divided socially, politically, economically, and unfortunately, racially when it comes to police violence and misconduct. Black Americans are disproportionately affected by police violence as a leading cause of death where Black men and boys are twice as likely, and Black women are one-and-a- half times as likely subjected to police use of deadly force where severe incapacitation or death is imminent (Edwards et al. 2019). With roughly 13.4% of American citizens identifying as Black

(U.S. Census Bureau 2020), 44 million face increased risk to injuries by police mirroring incidents such as Rodney King (1991), Amadou Diallo (1999), Sean Bell (2006), Michael Brown

(2014), Eric Garner (2014), Tamir Rice (2014), Laquan McDonald (2014), Freddie Gray (2015),

Walter Scott (2015), Sandra Bland (2015), Alton Sterling (2016), Philando Castile (2016),

Stephon Clark (2018), Botham Jean (2019), Ronald Greene (2019), Atatiana Jefferson (2019),

Elijah McClain (2019), Daniel Prude (2020), Breonna Taylor (2020), George Floyd (2020),

Rayshard Brooks (2020), Jacob Blake (2020), Walter Wallace Jr. (2020), Caron Nazario (2020),

Casey Goodson Jr. (2020), Marvin David Scott III (2021), Daunte Wright (2021), Ma’Khia

Bryant (2021), Andrew Brown Jr. (2021), Dartavius Barnes (2021), and most recently, Winston

Smith (2021) (see Appendix A).

Whether walking from school, frequenting local mom-and-pop shops, celebrating upcoming wedding plans, visiting family, driving/walking to, jogging through the neighborhood, eating at home, or sleeping in a vehicle, Black citizens are killed in designated areas considered community safety zones (National Neighborhood Watch n.d.). Additionally, these examples highlight responding officers’ utilizing techniques within their use-of-force continuum that resulted in lethal use of force including but not limited to unauthorized chokeholds and shooting

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individuals suspected of committing an offense between 1 and 50 times (Fritsch 2000; Baker &

Flegenheimer 2012; Fortin & Bromwich 2017; McLaughlin & Almasy 2019; Tompkins 2020;

Luscombe 2020; Wood 2020; Wessman & Holcombe 2020; King 2020) (see Appendix A). Police violence has been identified as a public health issue warranting public concern and governmental action because of “corrosive levels of inequality, and the continuance of moral hazards (Judt

2011; Gau & Paoline III 2020; Ingeno 2020).” Therefore, this study investigates whether an association between diversification of officers in law enforcement and officer-involved incident reduction exists.

Problem Statement

Police violence in the form of officer-involved shootings tarnishes pre-existing relationships between law enforcement and communities of color (Obama 2011; Pegues 2017;

Edwards et al. 2019). Leaving this problem unaddressed presents three dilemmas: 1) police difficulty in information-gathering processes to curb the frequencies of crime; 2) complete avoidance of police and geographically urban regions; and 3) vocalized concerns through civil and uncivil protests—for and against communities of color (Wilson et al. 2016; Edwards et al.

2019; Gau & Paoline III 2020). Consequentially, fear, angst, and frustration delegitimize policing efforts during moments of chaos and revives stark narratives reminiscent of the Jim

Crow and Civil Rights Movement eras (Montolio 2018; Alexander 2010; Sharpton 2020; Dyson

2020). In the mid-1960s, the Kerner Commission recommended recruiting African Americans into the police force and created a series of federally-funded initiatives to recruit Black youth in hopes that the increased staff diversity would cut the frequency of officer-involved incidents

(Bolton 2003; Bolton & Feagin 2007; Matthies et al. 2012; Fan 2015). Instead, recruited officers of color find themselves concerned about cultural acceptance and whether hiring was on merit or

11 fulfilling administrative quotas as the result of affirmative action (Bolton 2003; Thompson 2003;

Bolton & Feagin 2007; Wilson et al. 2016). To dispel racial tension as a precursor for distrust among the two populations, it is highly recommended and beneficial for police reform to revisit

Kerner's commission findings and execute the active implementation of Diversification of

Officers in Law Enforcement initiatives (D.O.L.E.) by recruiting and integrating people of color into the policing diaspora.

While concerns of police misconduct and legitimacy resound across the fifty states, the city of Boston, Massachusetts, is no stranger to calls for action to repair police-community relationships that set the standard for other law enforcement organizations to follow suit. The

Obama administration highlighted the Boston Police Department (BPD) as a model for advancing 21st century policing because of their ability to “embrace community policing and use social media” to build relationships with their civilians (Obama 2011).” Despite recognition from the federal government, the local government has candidly admitted that surface-level policies, procedures, and politics to address police reform are deficient. Furthermore, the city’s police reform task force required “the formalized expansion of BPD’s commitment to diversity and inclusion in hiring and promotion policies to bring about meaningful cultural change (City of

Boston 2020).” This study seeks to identify the perspectives of Black police officers involved within these initiatives and obtain their input to prioritize institutional changes that reimagine the current infrastructure of policing.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the relationship between the diversification of officers in law enforcement and officer-involved shooting reduction through structured interviews of Black police officers in Boston, Massachusetts. The study focuses on

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Black police officer recruitment, selection, and training into the workforce; techniques utilized to de-escalate officer-involved incidents; and how, if at all, race influences the choices and decisions made when interacting in Black communities while on-and-off duty. It is important to note the trajectory of the study specifically orients towards a phenomenological approach where participants received questions regarding their lived experiences as recruited, hired, and trained

Black BPD officers. The respondent officers were part of diversification initiatives placed at the federal, state, and local areas of government, and the study explores whether participation in those initiatives de-escalates officer-involved shooting incidents. Knowledge generated informs multiple levels of government, addresses gaps in scholarship, and aids in examining the impact of racial diversity in policing. The findings can provide insight into police-community relationship repair and propose future policy proposals to re-legitimize policing.

Research Question

This study will inquire the following:

1) What is the relationship between Black police officers' lived experiences participating in

Diversification of Officers in Law Enforcement (D.O.L.E.) initiatives and their perceived impact toward officer-involved shooting reduction?

Theoretical Framework

This study serves to explore the relationship between increased workforce diversity and improving police-community relationships among two specific groups: law enforcement and

Black communities. To examine society and culture as it relates to the categorization of race, law, and power, research findings will seek to evaluate the extent of police-community relations through the lens of critical race theory. Critical race theory (c.r.t.) states racial inequality emerges from the social, economic, and legal differences that White people create between races to

13 maintain elite White interests in labor markets and politics, giving rise to poverty and criminality

(Curry 2020).

Critical race theory, at its inception in the late 1970s in response to stalled advances to racial equity during the 1960 Civil Rights Movement era (Delgado et al. 2012), challenged its predecessor critical legal scholars (c.l.s.) theory for its failure to include systemic implications of race when addressing how laws protect society members holding hierarchal socioeconomic statuses (Bell 1995; Crenshaw et al. 1995; Delgado et al. 2012; Cole 2017; Bridges 2019).

Instead, c.r.t.’s invested in obtaining academic, cultural, and legal insight into how laws fabricate race, protect racism, reproduce racial inequality, and seek to use this framework to dismantle its very creation (Bell 1995; Bridges 2019). In c.r.t.’s worldview, the rejection of systemic racism

(Delagado & Stefancic 2012) or claims that America lives in a post-slavery and post-racial society (Bridges 2019), infers a lack of race-consciousness and further “perpetuates the continuation of racial inequalities in this post-civil rights era (Bell 1995; Williams 1999; Bridges

2019).” Furthermore, c.r.t. explains racial disenfranchisement as a rational mechanism allowing non-marginalized communities to benefit from law and policies that enhance and reinforce racial dominance in American society because of its constitutional history of slave ownership (Bell

1995; Cole 2017).

Since then, c.r.t. evolved from a call to action against racial discrimination and segregation in all aspects of Black life at a macro-level to addressing racial equity concerns, specifically within higher education where Black-tenured faculty were significantly underrepresented in recruitment, hiring, and retention practices (Bell 1995; Crenshaw et al. 1995;

Subotnik 1998; Cole 2017; Bridges 2019). In 1981, Derrick Bell, a Black-tenured professor teaching Black studies curriculum challenging racial truism at Harvard Law School (H.L.S.) and

14 credited as one of the founding members of c.r.t. (Crenshaw et al. 1995; Subotnik 1998; Delgado et al. 2012; Cole 2017; Bridges 2019), left the university in protest for the lack of inclusionary efforts prioritized by the academic institution. In conjunction with Bell’s departure, students of color sought for the next teaching candidate to fill the position to be an individual of color to which it is alleged that “no Black professor alive who could meet H.L.S.’s standards of excellence in hiring (Bridges 2019).” In response, the students boycotted course and faculty substitutions and developed an alternative course that discussed the intersectionality between the law and race (Crenshaw et al. 1995). One of the student protestors turned co-founder of coining

‘Critical Race Theory,’ Kimberle Crenshaw (1995) notes that Critical Race Theory arose as a concept in response to subtle and systemic ways racism operates above and beyond any overly racist expressions.

C.r.t. scholars believe the law plays a significant role in racial subordination and inequity in education, policymaking, and legal practice. While the applicability of laws across American society is not a “one size fits all” framework, it protects White privilege because of its “property interest in whiteness that, although unacknowledged, now forms the background again which legal disputes are framed, argued, and adjudicated (Bell 1995).” Seeking to disrupt prejudicial biases, proponents of c.r.t. emphasize the importance of finding strategies to promote socio- cultural competency and reiterating racism to be a detriment to all community members regardless of racial affiliations identifications (Purdue University n.d.). Opponents of c.r.t. perceive the ideology as radical and “rehashes viewpoints long-ago rejected by virtually all experts in the field (Bell 1995; Fraser 1995).” To effectively understand the implications of racial division through a policymaking lens, c.r.t. believes in a dual-dichotomous effort to blend

15 academic scholarship with real-life experiences to produce policy implications to “dismantle systems that subordinate people of color (Bridges 2019).”

C.r.t.’s framework around policing takes a racially ordered society favoring whiteness as its starting point, provides the tools to challenge racism continually, and reveals how racialization implicates the use of force, restraint, and extent and frequency of enforcement through enriched storytelling and scholarly application (Ford & Airhihenbuwa 2018; Long 2018;

Capers 2019). With this framework in mind, c.r.t. lends itself the opportunity to evolve once more to understand further race implications in policing and theoretically argues officer-involved shootings directly respond to the failures of addressing the following five tenets:

1) The Notion that Racism is Ordinary

Black Americans’ perception of police today is rooted in historical encounters with deputized slave patrols where predominantly White segregationists applied state-sanctioned brutality to deprive newly freed Black slaves of their humanity (Johnson 2020). Members of these slave patrols could forcefully enter anyone's home regardless of race-based on suspicions that White people were sheltering slaves who escaped bondage (Turner et al. 2007). While policing has evolved to encourage subtle notes of diversity in recruitment, hiring, and training of police officers, the overuse of criminal justice policies such as stops, searches, and arrests, are disproportionately applicable to Black Americans and other individuals of color (Letts et al.

2020). Where claims of unauthorized or excessive use-of-force by police recur, society becomes desensitized to its frequency and treats officer-involved incidents as a common occurrence through contemporary colorblind racism (Williams & Clarke 2019; Bonilla-Silva 2020).

2) The idea of an Interest Convergence

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Cultural transmission of beliefs incorporates generational status quos, one of which labels and pits the haves – White people – against the have-nots – communities of color (Hartlep 2009).

The generational implementation of this rhetoric supports the idea that Whites will allow and support racial justice/progress to the extent that there is something positive for them or intersectional interests between Whites and non-Whites (Bell 1995; Hartlep 2009). Examples of this include financial incentives for police to wear body cameras consistently, and report officer- involved incidents to the federal government for review in exchange for budget increases for internal and external police department needs (U.S. COPS 2015-2017; Congress 2019-2020).

3) The Social Construction of Race

C.r.t. scholars argue that racially constructed social cues appear throughout history.

Instances of these cues include slavery, the Jim Crow era, White privilege, and the New Jim

Crow era where Black Americans are repeatedly subjected to disproportionate treatment and confined within the criminal justice system paradigm (Alexander 2010; Amuchie 2016; Bridges

2019). White privilege refers to the social, political, and economic advantages granted to White individuals based on their racial membership (Purdue University n.d.; DiAngelo 2018). Police violence in the form of chokeholds discharged firearms at excessive rates, and missing accountability measures for misuse of law enforcement authority replicates the perpetuation of

Black inferiority and White fragility (DiAngelo 2018; Wilson et al. 2016; Edwards et al. 2019).

4) Storytelling and Counter-storytelling

Storytelling is the ability of individuals representing marginalized identities to speak their truth with a powerful, persuasive, and analytical expertise that opens the dialogue to unlearn implicit and explicit biases (Crenshaw et al. 1995; Hartlep 2009; Hiraldo 2010). Counter- storytelling is the rebuttal of one's narrative because of conflicting ideologies that contradict the

17 authenticity of statements. For example, while storytelling provides the opportunity to reframe the social, political, and economic narrative of Black inferiority in contemporary America, high profile-cases and their corresponding timelines (see Appendix A) counteract compelling arguments to support claims of policing legitimacy given the frequency of police violence syndicated in academia, the media, and different tiers of government (U.S. Department of Justice

2016). Alternatively, law enforcement agencies communicate that “bad apples” did not speak for all police officers and though they do not condone misuse of force, there are occasions where force is necessary to deter noncompliance as a means of protecting themselves and bystanders

(COPS 2015-2017).

(5) Intersectionality

The founders of c.r.t suggest White Americans as beneficiaries of policies crafted to support the Black experience because of the privileges associated with their skin color (Bell

1995; Crenshaw et al. 1995; Cole 2017; Bridges 2019). Though c.r.t. centers on race and racism, it celebrates other marginalized identities such as gender, class, religion, ability/disability, and sexual orientation (Crenshaw et al. 1995; Mirza & Williams 1999). It acknowledges the existence of oppression, such as sexism, homophobia, ableism, etc. Crenshaw (1995) defines intersectionality as “the belief that individuals often have overlapping interests and traits based not only on their racial identity but also their socioeconomic status, gender, and other factors.

(Crenshaw et al. 1995).” This lens amplifies the intersectionality of race and property in which the combination of both identities results in establishing racial and economic subordination where “White identity groups and whiteness were sources of privilege and protection; preventing

White people from being considered as property and keeping them free from enslavement (Wiley

Library, n.d.).” As a result of these systemic notions, implicit biases contribute to racial profiling

18 schemas that Black identifying individuals experience difficulty escaping because while they can assume positions of power, prestige, and privilege, their race and the historical connotations that come with it, supersede these acknowledged accolades during police encounters (Bolton 2003;

Thompson 2003; Sun & Payne 2004; Bolton & Feagin 2007; Wilson et al. 2016; Rios et al.

2017; Todak et al. 2018).

Understanding Fractured Police-Community Relations through Critical Race Theory Lens

Figure 1: Critical Race Theory Cycle for Understanding Police Community Relations

Definitions

The purpose of this section is to provide context for the vernacular usage of terms discussed and thoroughly referenced throughout the study and to assist the intended audience in clarity of information with precise understanding (Creswell 2013; Neuman 2020):

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Diversification of Officers in Law Enforcement (D.O.L.E.) – The recruitment, hiring, and training of police officers of color with an emphasis on increasing Black enrollment rates in law enforcement agencies (U.S. Department of Justice 2016).

Officer-Involved Shooting – An incident where a police officer incapacitates or fatally shoots an individual alleged as the suspect of criminal activity (Police Data Initiative 2017).

Qualified Immunity – The protection of a government official from lawsuits alleging the official violated a citizen's rights unless there are clearly established regulations that expressly prohibit the conduct where a hypothetical reasonable official would have known the behavior unconscionable (Legal Information Institute n.d.).

Critical race theory – The view that race is an influential factor in the inequitable distribution and redistribution of systemic power and privilege (Crenshaw et al. 1995).

Phenomenology – A qualitative technique that involves the narratives shared as individual experiences to better understand the source of a particular phenomenon and used as evidence to influence resolution to a researched problem (Husserl 1960; Creswell & Creswell 2018).

Assumptions

The study aligns itself to a phenomenological interpretivist methodology that “focuses on the systematic analysis of socially meaningful action through the direct detailed observation of people in natural settings to arrive at understandings and interpretations of how people create and maintain their social worlds and assess settings of individuals directly experiencing first-hand phenomena (Neuman 2020).” Under interpretivism, the nature of reality for the researcher’s investigated problem is to understand its social construction, comprehend why individuals think the way they do when confronted with problems, and what mechanisms are in place to address them (Creswell 2013; Qutoshi 2018; Neuman 2020). Examples include: “cross-cultural

20 differences in organizations, issues of ethics, leadership, and analysis of factors impacting leadership (Creswell 2013).”

In this case, the study focuses on understanding the problem of excessive use-of-force by police officers onto Black citizens, how those who identify as Black employed in law enforcement agencies view their role in the cultural dichotomy, and what racial barriers influence retention in navigating careers in policing. It additionally informs potential policy recommendations on officer-involved shooting reduction provided through their narrative accounts to the researcher. In taking Black police officers’ narratives at face value, there are limitations on how much information each participant is willing to share out of fear of retaliatory treatment against the “blue code of silence” (Klockars et al. 2000; Thompson 2003; Pegues

2017).

Scope and Delimitations

The research objective is to explore the relationship between Black police officers’ lived experiences participating in Diversification of Officers in Law Enforcement (D.O.L.E.) initiatives and perceptions in officer-involved shooting reduction. The primary data gathering method consists of a snowball sample of up to 16 Black police officers from Boston,

Massachusetts. In a 30-60 minute interview, participants receive a series of questions regarding policing in areas representative of or delineated from racial identities; de-escalation strategies used when confronting conflicts; accessibility and duration of cultural competency training(s); departmental accountability metrics; and experience with officer-involved shooting encounters.

The study’s scope encompasses the direct narrative of recruited, hired, and trained Black police officers involved in diversification programs and whether their direct participation influences the lesser likelihood of officer-involved shootings. The scope does not cover the

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numerical relationship between the increased recruitment of Black police officers and the number of officer-involved shootings in the city of Boston. The rationale for participant selection is to introduce their input as valuable influencers in restoring police legitimacy and to “identify organizational barriers impacting Black police officer effectiveness in responding to the needs of

Black citizens (Decker & Smith 1981; Thompson 2003, Bolton & Feagin 2007, Wilson et al.

2016, Duke 2018).”

Limitations

Several limitations are considered as potential constraints on the accuracy of future findings: COVID-19 public health protocols, the sensitivity of the subject matter, and availability of primary points of contact to recruit the number of participants required to achieve saturation of research. Given the current social, economic, and political climate involving the pandemic, the participant and the researcher's health barriers impact the availability to arrange and finalize schedules to conduct interviews as planned. Secondly, police officers responding to urgent distress calls may be inaccessible for long durations while on duty and less likely to participate in an interview immediately after completing their shifts. Third, the nature of questions posed in an interview with Black police participants invokes the likelihood of discomfort in describing experiences that induce feelings of social and psychological trauma due to fears of retaliatory conduct from information disclosure by non-identifying affinity group members (Thompson

2003; Bolton 2003; Bolton & Feagin 2007; Duke 2018). Although the researcher shares the same affinity group as the participants of the study, the researcher's race and gender may lead to unintended consequences such as bias where lack of participation and transparency of information occurs. Finally, there’s also the concern of information loss when points of contact

22 are no longer available due to political changes and scandals (NBC Boston 2021; Rosenberg

2021).

Significance

Despite previous claims of race as a nonfactor in the treatment of Black citizens during police encounters (Brunson & Gau 2015; Johnson et al. 2019), the resurgence of officer-involved fatalities in 2020 alone such as Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks, and the publicly viewed eight- minute and forty-six second video of George Floyd’s death raises national eyebrows on whether those claims apply (DeGue et al. 2016; Fagan & Campbell 2020; Lett et al. 2020; PBS 2020).

Pre-existing literature states policing carries historically racial undertones that disproportionately target Black citizens, and until diversity and inclusion education addresses misrepresentation in policing culture and underrepresentation of Black Americans in the law enforcement workforce, history continues to repeat itself at nearly thrice the rate (Edwards et al. 2019; Fagan & Campbell

2020; Lett et al. 2020). The significance of the study is to identify skill-based, rule-based, and knowledge-based situational factors that reinforce police delegitimacy (Fagan & Campbell

2020), obtain insight through the lens of active-duty officers for why officer-involved shootings as an ongoing phenomenon persist despite substantiated policy recommendations in place from multiple tiers of government to prevent reoccurrence (Obama 2011; COPS 2015-2017; U.S.

Department of Justice 2016). The intended beneficiaries of the study are legislative policymakers to assess the current effectiveness of enacted police reform and discover areas of opportunity to repair police-community relationships with bipartisan support efforts, law enforcement agencies pursuing renewed commitments to police legitimacy through workforce diversity, and Black communities seeking reassurance that being stopped or engaging in dialogue with police will not lead to their death (DeGue et al. 2016; Edwards et al. 2019; Lett et al. 2020).

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Summary

This chapter lays out how police violence as a national problem gaining momentum across media, academia, and federal, state, and local government platforms because of controversial use-of-force techniques disproportionately applied to individuals of color by law enforcement agencies resulting in severe incapacitation and permanent fatalities to Black men, women, and children (Edwards et al. 2018; Edwards et al. 2019; Lett et al. 2020). Background literature, both legal and empirical, suggests political division in prioritizing police reform laws due to a lack of data unconfirming correlations of police violence to claims of racial injustice

(Duke 2018; Gau & Paoline III 2020). As a result, proposed legislation has gained little to no traction in addressing police misconduct and data transparency. To make effective and efficient policy necessary to address police accountability for the misuse of authority, the government needs credible research and findings to authenticate the forwarding of proposed deliverables as law (U.S. Department of Justice 2016; Montolio 2018). Additional recommendations to address police-community friction involves the improvement of workforce diversity efforts within the scope of policing (Thompson 2003; Mathies et al. 2012; Wilson et al. 2015; Wilson et al. 2016;

Gau & Paoline III 2020). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore the perception of the impact of presence of Black officers in the Boston Police Department on officer-involved shootings. At the conclusion of the study, it is the intent to return back to this notion of improving police-community relations utilizing recommendations received through phenomenological data provided by consenting research participants.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

According to recent publications, Black Americans are disproportionately affected by police violence where approximately 1 in 1,000 African Americans have died from deadly use of

24 force, and the number continues to rise (Edwards et al. 2019). With approximately 44 million individuals who identify as Black in the United States, this equates to nearly 44,000 Black

Americans at risk of life loss as a result of police violence (US Census 2019; Edwards et al.

2019). Lawmakers have reached an impasse where despite the introduction of bills, suggested remedies have been stalled or tabled due to changes in government administration and lack of priority. This empirical review explores existing studies focused on the use of force data transparency within law enforcement; officer and civilian characteristics in officer-involved shootings; barriers preventing the equitable recruitment of diverse police officers; proposed short-and-long-term solutions to address public concerns surrounding excessive use of police force from government officials, researchers, and policymakers; and variables for determining whether the inclusion of diversified individuals are indicators in the reduction of police- community conflict between the two populations.

Literature Search Strategy

The strategy implemented in the researcher’s literary search consisted of extensive review on the historical foundations of policing, notable trends in commonly used police techniques where the victim (or families if deceased) alleges race as an influencer in the outcome of police treatment, the legal precedent of federal, state, and local laws, and theoretical and conceptual frameworks that offer perspective as to why police-community relations remain fractured. Through journal publications and credible news sources, the academic scholarship from past and current research across at least a 30-year span verifies the relevance and continuation of subject matter concerns (Decker & Smith 1981; Bolton 2003; Bolton & Feagin

2007; Obama 2011; Matthies et al. 2012; COPS (2015-2017); Final Report of the President’s

25

Task Force on 21st Century Policing 2017; Duke 2018; Edwards et al. (2018-2019); Johnson et al. 2019; Cooper 2020; DeSilver et al. 2020; Lett et al. 2020).

After consulting the above-referenced content, the police officer’s race and race of police-violence victims continued to play a role in the power dynamics within police-community relations. However, the extent to which race influences a police officer’s decision, albeit Black or White, to engage in deadly use-of-force when the police officer is White, and the victim is

Black remains unclear. Trends in the literature reveal that when White police officers initiate deadly use-of-force described as misconduct to Black victims, qualified immunity is a barrier preventing the applicability of accountability measures to the individual engaging in prohibited behavior nor the department (Ramirez et al. 2019). On the other hand, though acquitted of misconduct, Black victims and their families pursuing civil suits against the city for the officer’s misconduct have resulted in enormous settlement offers as high as $12 million (The New York

Times 2020) deriving from taxpayer dollars (Ramirez et al. 2019). Due to a lack of frequent publicized deadly force police encounters among Black officers, the researcher seeks to evaluate the role of Black police officer perceptions to identify any similarities or notable differences to inform policy on officer-involved shooting reduction.

Literature Reviews

The literature review section breaks down into two components – Law & Policy and

Empirical. The purpose of separating the two is to illustrate how the government and academic scholars approach the public’s concerns regarding police legitimacy from different angles. The

Law & Policy Review chronicles the history of the federal government’s proposed legislative action to address police misconduct and restore the public’s faith in law enforcement with specific deference to improved police-community relations between law enforcement and

26 communities of color. The Empirical Review looks at the statistical data regarding the demographic makeup of law enforcement officers in the United States, frequency percentages of officer-involved shootings, and evaluating a series of academic scholarships to identify noticeable trends and variables impacting the effectiveness of racial diversity in policing. Finally, the section concludes with a discussion on how this study serves to fill in law & policy and empirical data gaps observed through a phenomenological approach.

Law & Policy Review

According to the U.S. Department of Justice (2018), an estimated two percent of the U.S. population have encountered police contact resulting in a non-fatal threat or use of force. Blacks

(5.2%) and Hispanics (5.1%) were more likely than White (2.4%) to experience the threat of use of physical force by police (Bureau of Justice Statistics 2018). In 2011, former President Barack

Obama initiated Executive Order 13583 to establish a task force with the intent to advance equity and security in several areas of policing including: “trust and legitimacy; policy and oversight; community policing and crime re-education; training; and officer wellness and safety (Obama

2011).” The task force's findings concluded that tensions observed by police-community relations resulted from a lack of cultural diversity and a lack of training on culturally sensitive issues. The task force also discovered that additional work is needed to understand the impact of increased workforce diversity on law enforcement agencies through longitudinal empirical research (COPS 2015-2017; U.S. Department of Justice 2015). In response to the U.S.

Department of Justice's findings, law enforcement agencies attempted to recruit individuals of color to diversify work dynamics in hopes of legitimizing policing by addressing public concerns about racial tension and excessive force (U.S. Department of Justice 2015).

27

To encourage additional federal interest from government stakeholders, a series of congressional bills were proposed by the 116th Congress focusing on constituent concerns about data force transparency, police training, the duty of care, and accountability measures for officers misusing their powers to inflict harm onto others. Collectively, the bills acknowledge the need for federal government assistance to restore police-community relations through a centralized body of powers. Policymakers request uniformity to create investigatory protocols for state and local government adherence when sanctioning law enforcement agents for alleged police misconduct. More specifically, the legislation evaluates (1) whether the use of force against suspects facing criminal prosecution warranted that action; (2) whether the responding law enforcement officer used force as a first or last resort; (3) data collection on demographical trends in race and ethnicity of both officer and victim; and (4) determining which specific governmental entity administers disciplinary proceedings for an officer’s misconduct (116th

Congress 2019-2020).

Data Force Transparency

The National Statistics on Data Force Transparency Act (H.R. 119) requires the Attorney

General, after conferring with federal, state, and local stakeholders to issue regulations to retrieve data from all federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies where deadly force was applied.

The data involves the collection of races, ethnicity, gender, alleged criminal activity of victims, and a required list of nonlethal steps taken before utilizing deadly force. The act imposes the negative incentive of a 10% reduction of federal funding under the Edward Byrne Memorial

Justice Assistance Grant Program for noncompliance (116th Congress 2019). The Police

Creating Accountability by Making Effective Recording Available (CAMERA) Act of 2019

(H.R. 120) grants federal funding to state and local government policing agencies to purchase or

28 lease body-worn cameras to improve evidence collection, accountability, transparency, and deter excessive force claims. The intentionality behind enacting both proposed resolutions simultaneously was to provide independent autonomy for the crafting and enforcement of internal organizational policies surrounding alleged misconduct complaints and evaluating the frequency of these occurrences.

Police Training and Independent Review

The Police Training and Independent Review Act (H.R. 125; S. 1938) authorizes the U.S.

Department of Justice to award grant funding to compliant law enforcement agencies who have diversity and sensitivity training; and appoints an independent prosecutor to investigate and prosecute an alleged offense involving deadly force by law enforcement resulting in death or injury. Noncompliant states are ineligible to receive funding under this bill.

The Police Exercising Care with Everyone Act (H.R. 4359) prohibits federal law enforcement offices from using deadly force unless necessary, and the force must be proportional to execute the arrest of persons when probable cause and reasonable alternatives to the use of power have been exhausted. 'Reasonable alternatives' contextually references de-escalation techniques such as verbal persuasion, tactical methods, and creating distance between the officer and the threat. The scope of the law reduces force towards the following demographical populations: pregnant women, children, and youth under age 21, elderly, persons with mental, behavioral, or physical disabilities or impairments, intoxicated persons due to use of alcohol, narcotics, hallucinogens, or other drugs; persons suffering from a serious medical condition; and persons where English is not their proficient language (116th Congress 2019).

The Deadly Force Independent Review Act (H.R. 4440) requires every federal law enforcement agency to create and implement protocols for investigating if the use of force

29 against suspects facing criminal prosecution was justified. The investigations are conducted by the Council of Inspector General, Attorney General, and Committee on Oversight & Reform in both the House and Senate (116th Congress 2019). It promotes transparency and accountability for those responsible for abusing police powers in a discriminatory fashion, legitimizing policing, safety, and security in both the eyes of the public and the law.

In the aftermath of George Floyd’s death, House Democrats and Senate GOP of the 116th

Congress and 117th Congress attempted to create a series of bills as a bipartisan effort to address police reform as a nonpartisan issue. For House Democrats, the Justice in Policing Act (H.R.

7120) focuses on police accountability, policing transparency through data, improving police training and policies, data collection, federal regulations, and reports on racial profiling in the

United States by the U.S. Department of Justice, and closing the law enforcement consent loophole. Specifically, police accountability seeks to reform expectations surrounding the use of qualified immunity during officer-involved incidents and prohibits its use as a legal defense, increased involvement of the state and federal attorney generals to conduct independent investigations when an alleged offense involved the law enforcement officer’s use of deadly force that resulted in death or injury of a civilian, and a reallocation of police agency funds to

“study and implement effective management, training, recruiting, hiring, and oversight standards and programs to promote effective community and problem-solving strategies for law enforcement agencies (116th Congress 2020).”

The “Just and Unifying Solutions to Invigorate Communities Everywhere Act of 2020,” or JUSTICE Act, makes “lynching a federal crime; incentivizes the federal compliance of body camera usage in law enforcement agencies, penalizes false police reporting, creates a commission to improve the social status of Black men and boys, and charge federal law

30 enforcement with a federal crime if they engage in sexual misconduct with individuals in custody

(116th Congress 2020; Treene 2020).” In addition, the JUSTICE Act requires for the Attorney

General, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), state and local law enforcement agencies to collaborate on the creation of a national use-of-force data collection requiring all states to report cases of serious bodily injury and individual fatalities when use-of-force is used by law enforcement to the FBI for review. Failure to adhere to the federal mandate results in a 20 percent reduction in funding for the first fiscal year of non-compliance. Subsequent fiscal years where non-compliance continues results in a 5-25-percent reduction in fiscal funding to the state and local government policing agencies (117th Congress 2021).

Due to irreconcilable political differences between Democrats and Republicans, all of the abovementioned House Resolutions died on the Congressional floor (Lillis & Brufke 2020).

However, after the 2020 presidential and congressional elections took place, a transition of political powers shifted from President Donald Trump to President Joe Biden, and Vice President

Kamala Harris. The Biden-Harris administration reopened the policy window to resuscitate the bills again into one comprehensive legislation bill approved by the 117th Congressional House titled the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act (117th Congress 2021). The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act (H.R. 1280) seeks “to hold law enforcement accountable for misconduct in court, improve transparency through data collection, and reform police training and policies such as racial profiling, qualified immunity, use-of-force, and accreditation of law enforcement agencies

(117th Congress 2021).” Currently, H.R. 1280 was forwarded to the Senate for review, and if the majority of congressional senators vote to approve the bill, it’s next stop for ratification is to the

Biden Administration for final review prior to signing off as federal policy (117th Congress

2021).

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Officer Use of Force & Qualified Immunity Protections

An exemplified policy created through an adjudicatory process on the excessive use of force and police reform is the Terry stop, also known as stop-and-frisk. The Fourth Amendment protects citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures from law enforcement without probable cause or reasonable suspicion that a crime “has been, is being, or committed by the suspect (U.S. Const. Amend. IV).” However, it is important to note that there are anomalies where a conducted search and seizure of items are admissible pending legal guidelines. Terry stops are an example of a permissible policy for law enforcement officers to stop an individual suspected of an offense and pat-down or frisk or their body to remove any items perceived as an imminent threat to the responding officer and/or community bystanders. To avoid the misuse of stop-and-frisk measures, clarification was given by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Terry v. Ohio case. Terry v. Ohio (1968) held that stop-and-frisk methods must follow Fourth Amendment protections and grants police officers the power to frisk only if the suspect is dangerous. In later years, stop-and-frisk took various forms across federal and state lines. The scope of Terry stops prohibits police officers from “using evidence obtained by an illegal arrest (Brown v. Illinois

1975),” “exceeding the time necessary to discuss the matter (Rodriguez v. United States 2015),” yet admit evidence obtained by an unconstitutional stop pending the police officer finds “a valid pre-existing, and untrained arrest warrant (Utah v. Strieff 2016).” The juggling of constitutionality between a reasonable stop versus an unconscionable one results in unbalanced power where police agencies across different jurisdictions lack accountable measures to support uniformity, transparency, fairness, and legitimacy of the criminal justice system.

Qualified immunity is another caveat posing direct challenges to police accountability because of certain exceptions where violating civil rights protections are permissible. Qualified

32 immunity is the protection of a government official from lawsuits alleging the official violated a citizen’s rights unless there are clearly established regulations in place that expressly prohibit the conduct where a hypothetical reasonable official would have known the behavior was unconscionable (Legal Information Institute n.d.). The court decisions upheld in Kisela v.

Hughes (2008), and Mullinex v. Luna (2015), describe examples where qualified immunity shields police officers from disciplinary action when their conduct “does not violate clearly established statutes or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.”

Here, a clearly established right is identified as “verbiage sufficiently clear when every reasonable official understands the act that someone is doing violates that right (Mullinex v. Luna

2015).” Without clearly defined parameters set forth by state statute or federal policy, officers receive “a near-absolute defense to all but the most outrageous conduct, and shields police misconduct from liability and meaningful scrutiny (U.S. Commission for Civil Rights

2018).” Concerning excessive use of force, the Courts also held that the Fourth Amendment does not guarantee an individual is free from excessive force and indviduals with police misconduct concerns must submit legal inquiries incorporating the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. As a result, when crafting policies, policymakers must formulate a policy that falls within the clearly established standard. Otherwise, the policies fail before they have the opportunity to foster change.

State & Local Progression of Police Reform

Until congressional bill ratification of H.R. 1280 applies nationally, states must draft their own legislation to curtail the problem independently without federal involvement. Many states are left to their own interpretations of justifiable and unjustifiable officer-involved shooting conduct. For example, in California, in response to the death of Stephon Clark, Governor Gavin

33

Newsome signed Assembly Bill 392 and Senate Bill 230 into law requiring course instruction for law enforcement officers covering the following subjects: legal standards for the use of force; duty to intercede; the use of objectively reasonable force; supervisory responsibilities; use of force review and analysis; guidelines for deadly force; state-required reporting; implicit and explicit bias and cultural competency; de-escalation techniques for people with disabilities and behavioral health issues; use of force scenario training; and alternatives to deadly use of force

(California Legislature 2019). In Maine and Washington, both states enforce the good faith standard which considers facts, circumstances, and information known to the officer to determine whether a similarly situated reasonable officer would designate deadly force as necessary to prevent the death of one or more individuals (Maine Legislature 2007; Washington Legislature

2019).

New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts take more of a direct approach to concerns of police accountability, data transparency, and use-of-force definitions. The New York City

Council proposed six legislative bills to address police misconduct concerns within the New

York City Police Department (NYPD). Within these documents, the Council sought to “affirm the right to record police activities (No. 721-B), criminalize chokeholds and other restraints (No.

536-B), require on-duty police officers to display their badges at all times (No. ____ -A), require the NYPD to develop a disciplinary matrix (No. 1309-B), require an expansion of the NYPD’s

Early Intervention System (No. 760-B), and Public Oversight of Surveillance Technology

(POST) Act to create safeguards and security measures to protect reporting of body camera footage when used by NYPD (No. 487-A) (The New York State Senate 2020).” Governor

Andrew Cuomo also signed the Eric Garner Anti-chokehold Act (2020) which prohibits police

34 officers from using chokeholds or “similar restraint to cause serious physical injury or death to another person (The New York State Senate 2020).”

In December 2019, Attorney General Gurbir Grewal adopted the “Excellence in Policing

Initiative” to promote the culture of professionalism, accountability, and transparency as a national model for strengthening trust between law enforcement and the communities served

(Grewal 2019). A year later after the death of George Floyd, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, and Attorney General Grewal announced the enhancement of the “Excellence in Policing

Initiative” with five additional strategies:

“1) Crisis intervention training that assigns outside vendors (mental health practitioners)

as on-call as intermediaries to de-escalate incidents without resorting to deadly use-of-

force.

2) Statewide certification of police officers to improve police officer standards and

decertify those found in violation of misconduct.

3) Statewide use-of-force portal to record every instance of police use-of-force on public

record for administrative and civilian oversight, updated use-of-force policy to explicitly

ban the use of unauthorized applications of force for 36,000 New Jersey law enforcement

officers.

4) Creation of a division on civil rights incident response team (DCR) consisting of

community-relations specialists that responds to community concerns immediately during

events involving major civil rights (Murphy 2020; Grewal 2019-2020).”

Boston Police Department (BPD) Commissioner William Gross, Mayor Marty Walsh, and additional members of the Commonwealth Senate initiated various campaigns followed by proposed legislation to address police-community relations in the aftermath of George Floyd

35 proactively. Commissioner Gross revised several use-of-force policies to require law enforcement officers to make every effort to use non-lethal steps to de-escalate matters of conflict before considering the deadly use-of-force (Gross 2020). Subsequent efforts from the

191st Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts entail the legislative creation of Bill S.2800 and S.2963 which both seek to reform policing protocols into “equitable, fair and just standards

(191st Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts 2020).”

In the aftermath of George Floyd’s death and the current trial of his alleged murder, former officer Derek Chauvin (Fortliti et al. 2021; see Appendix A), state governments appear to have gained successful momentum towards revisitation of police reforms to challenge qualified immunity and use-of-force protocols. For example, Colorado became the first state to ban chokeholds and deadly use-of-force for nonviolent offenses, along with banning qualified immunity effective July 2023 (73rd Colorado General Assembly 2020; Sibilla 2020). New

Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed H.B. 4 into law which eliminates qualified immunity as a defense for police officers when constitutional violations occur, and while it does not assign personal liability for government employees, it mandates their employment agency to cover the costs (Louis et al. 2021; Institute of Justice 2021; Sibilla 2021). New York City

Council intends to vote on a series of bills that prohibit qualified immunity as a defense for civil rights and holds officers responsible for misconduct financially liable and hold the cities and departments pay the price (New York Council 2021; Williams 2021). Lastly, Maryland became the first state to repeal the police bill of rights despite objections from their state governor and implemented a new statewide use-of-force policy that sentences officers who engage in police in misconduct that causes severe injury and death up to 10 years in prison (Levenson & Pietsch

2021; Leonard 2021).

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Federal & Legislative Gaps in Policy

In conjunction with the proposal of congressional bills, on January 1st, 2019, the Federal

Bureau of Investigations (F.B.I) launched a nationwide use-of-force data collection task force encouraging, but not requiring, law enforcement participation in reporting use-of-force incidents.

Agencies are asked to submit the following: incident information (date and time of the incident, number of officers who applied force during the encounter, location, whether the officer approached the subject, reporting agency), subject information (age, sex, race, ethnicity, height, weight, cause of injury/death, type of force, whether the subject resisted, type of resistance, whether the subject was armed), and officer information (age, sex, race, ethnicity, height, weight, years of service, employee status, on-duty vs. off-duty, whether the officer was readily identifiable, whether the officer was injured, and injury type) (F.B.I. 2019). This data is not available for public review and requires federal networking and affiliation to access the content further through the Law Enforcement Enterprise Portal (LEEP) (F.B.I. 2019). To improve police- community relations through a restorative justice lens, data transparency is a critical area of opportunity.

While reviewing U.S. laws concerning use-of-force, there were notable similarities and differences regarding the use of language and interpretation of the policy. For similarities, throughout literature, one word was repeatedly referenced: reasonableness. The ambiguity of legal vernacular poses a significant detriment in the equitable application of security because different interpretations lead to multiple debates over context and usage (Fagan & Campbell

2020). It remains unclear whether reasonableness only evaluates actions assumed by responding officers, responding governments, or both. Notable differences pertain to 1) the independent review process for law enforcement accountability – bills are proposed for enactment or

37 misconduct cases are left to state courts to adjudicate; and 2) application of force by law enforcement – police have a history of using force first and asking questions later. Unfortunately, compliance across the nation remains finite and requires policymakers, diplomats, and active members of government to respectfully convene to explore uniformity in the use of force proceedings and where to draw the line between self-defense and extremism (Bolton 2003;

Bolton & Feagin 2007; Thompson 2003; COPS 2015; Wilson et al. 2016; U.S. Department of

Justice & Equal Opportunity Commission 2016; U.S. Committee on Civil Rights 2018; 116th

Congress 2019; Edwards et al. 2019; Gau & Paoline III 2020).

Varying views depict Diversification of Officers in Law Enforcement (D.O.L.E.) initiatives as necessary for the advancement of equitable organizational diversity (Fan 2015;

Edwards, Lee, & Esposito 2019; Gau & Paoline III 2020), while other studies indicate the incorporation of diverse hires as an accelerant for officer-involved incidents where Black victims are equally likely to be killed by Black officers (Sun & Payne 2004; Johnson et al. 2019). These studies concede missing empirical evidence to support either claim due to data discrepancies on these occurrences. As a result, the public is forced to make premature decisions about the existing state of the problem and assume solutions that accelerate ongoing tensions or underestimate the severity of impacted populations. To gauge whether the need to act is justified, policymakers rely on data gathered from public opinion, court holdings, and the state of

American bureaucracy as primary metrics for analysis.

Currently, with the exception of H.R. 1280, the abovementioned bills proposed and referred to subcommittees for advancement towards police reform have died on the congressional floor due to a lack of bipartisanship (Grisales et al. 2020). The policy window remains unavailable to enact effective and efficient legislation for adequate policing reform

38 because state and federal officials are preoccupied with other national urgencies. To convince policymakers otherwise requires a study aiming to identify whether an association between the diverse recruitment of law enforcement assists in the reduction of officer-involved shootings resulting in wrongful death suits exists and prevalent enough to warrant governmental action on a national scale. The researcher will revisit proposed congressional legislation for an in-depth analysis that identifies potential flaws and communicate recommendations on strengthening applicability to each bill for future policy implications in Chapter 5.

Empirical Literature Review

Diversification of Officers in Law Enforcement (D.O.L.E.)

According to the 2013 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics

(L.E.M.A.S.) survey, 27% of U.S. police officers in local agencies identify as individuals of color, with Black and Hispanic populations accounting for 12% each (Reaves 2015; Todak et al.

2018). Six years later, the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Statistics (2019) estimates approximately 15,322 law enforcement agencies sworn in 701,000 full-time officers in the

United States. Local police departments constitute 80% of the population. Upon reviewing the race or ethnicity of full-time sworn officers in local police departments, “71% are White, 11.4% are Black, 12% are Hispanic, and roughly 5% are unidentified (Reaves 2015) (see Appendix C).”

Upon further disaggregation of the data, as shown in Table 2, between 2013 (57,012) and 2016

(52,617), the percentage of Black officers sworn on the force dropped from 11.9 to 11.4 percent

(Wilson et al. 2015; U.S. Department of Justice 2019). On the surface, this percentage drop appears minuscule. However, closer observation depicts 4,395 Black officers as no longer full- time and calls for inquiry into what attributing factors contribute to the decline and why.

39

From 2014 to 2016, the U.S. Department of Justice (2016) identified three barriers preventing the advancement of diversity in law enforcement agencies: 1) recruitment, 2) hiring, and 3) retention. As Black officers integrate into the police force, strained relations, lack of trust, tokenism, racial attitudes, hostile work environments, and institutional oppression contribute to the failed recognition of services, impact, and accomplishments made by their presence on the police force (Bolton 2003; Sun & Payne 2004; Bolton & Feagin 2007; Matthies et al. 2012;

Wilson et al. 2015; Gau & Paoline III 2020). Additionally, these parameters limited the advancement and overall longevity of their careers when micro- and macro-aggressions interfere in the progression of performance (Bolton 2003; Bolton & Feagin 2007). Moreover, Black officers argue that traditional practices exist within policing. The possibility of subjectively racial divisions by White officers and the interpretation of behaviors and encounters being racist by Black officers will continue to reinforce existing racial divisions in police agencies (Bolton

2003; Bolton & Feagin 2007).

Implications of barriers to advancing D.O.L.E.

Historically, policing methods, when addressing safety concerns in predominantly Black neighborhoods, encounters where Black Americans are suspects in alleged offenses, or during situations involving accountability for allegations of misconduct, remain in the controversial discourse regarding the applications of force among academic scholars (Bolton 2003; Thompson

2003; Wilson et al. 2016; Edwards et al. 2019; Johnson et al. 2019; Gau & Paoline III 2020); journalists (Washington Post 2019); and multiple tiers of government (Obama 2011; COPS

2015-2017; U.S. Department of Justice 2016; U.S. Committee on Civil Rights 2018). As a result, residents in areas of concentrated disadvantage have a lower sense of trust and regard for the police based on ratio disparities in the racial makeup of policing agencies performing civic duties

40 in predominantly Black communities (Wilson et al. 2016). Additional barriers relate to Black

Americans stereotyped as uneducated inferior recidivists committing a crime by choice and not by circumstance (Thompson 2003; Bolton & Feagin 2007); lingering unaddressed trauma induced by witnessing the direct and indirect deaths of family and friends in instances of excessive force and misconduct cases (Bolton 2003; U.S. Department of Justice 2015; Wilson et al. 2016; Todak, Huff, & James 2018); and White police officers are afraid to engage racially and ethnically diverse communities out of fear that they will be labeled as racist or subjected to controversy when applying skills obtained in training, placing them at-risk of possible suspension or termination of employment (Todak, Huff, & James 2018).

Prior literature suggests mixed reviews for whether the recruitment and retention of Black police officers reduce officer-involved shootings. In 2019, The Proceedings of the National

Academy of Science (P.N.A.S.) published two studies posing conflicting viewpoints. One study reflects organizational diversity as necessary, given that White police officers kill 1 in every

1,000 Black men between 20-35 years of age (Edwards et al. 2018; Edwards et al. 2019).

Another study views diverse hires as counterintuitive for officer-involved incidents where their findings depict Black victims as equally likely to be killed by Black police officers (Johnson et al. 2019). Additionally, other researchers find recruitment strategies unsuccessful due to prospective candidates' concerns over cultural acceptance, metrics for hire, and over-inclusion

(Wilson et al. 2016; Todak, Huff, & James 2018).

Officer Characteristics and Racial Disparities in Officer-Involved Shootings

Johnson et al. (2019) conducted a quantitative analysis to identify whether racial barriers exist in Fatal Officer-Involved Shootings (F.O.I.S.). Nevertheless, they encountered an issue involving public inaccessibility to officers and civilian information after a fatal incident occurs.

41

To maintain the integrity of the research for testing purposes, the researchers constructed their preliminary database utilizing the deadly encounters released and reported by The Washington

Post and The Guardian given the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.) Uniform Crime Report

(U.C.R.) failed to provide adequate information about the officers or circumstances surrounding the incidents (Johnson et al. 2019; The Washington Post 2020; The Guardian 2020). The F.O.I.S. database comprised 2015 information about officer race, sex, and years of experience to determine whether officer sex or experience influenced racial disparities in fatal shootings. To test, locate, and predict the factors for racial inequality, the researchers used a multinomial regression with civilian race as the outcome and officer, civilian, and county characteristics as predictors.

Initially, after running the first multinomial regression, Johnson et al. (2019) concluded race as a non-factor for fatal officer-involved incidents because according to the data provided, as the percentage of Black and Hispanic officers who shot in a F.O.I.S. increased, a person fatally shot was more likely to be Black or Hispanic than White. To investigate mitigating factors for this trend, researchers re-ran the model, including county demographics, to acknowledge a potential overlap between officer and county demographics. The second regression eliminated the relationship between the officer and civilian race variables: 1) Black officers were not more likely to fatally shoot Black victims; 2) Hispanic officers were less likely to shoot Black and

Hispanic civilians fatally, and 3) Association between officer race and Black and Hispanic disparities in F.O.I.S. occur because officers and civilians drawn from the same population. The implications of this study confirmed that aside from race, sex and years of police experience have no significant impact on the statistical relationship between officer demographics and racial disparities in F.O.I.S.

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Colorblind Racism in Policing

While the concept of colorblindness has medical origins to describe the loss of vision or inability to see color (Tubert 2019), psychological, sociological, and criminological influence evolved its applicability to explain an ongoing phenomenon about race relations in America with specific deference to underlying racial tensions in policing between law enforcement and communities of color (Apfelbaum et al. 2012; April et al. 2019; Bonilla-Silver 2020). Colorblind racism is “the belief that racial group membership and race-based differences should not be taken into account when decisions are made, impressions are formed, behaviors are enacted, nor used as a strategy for managing diversity and intergroup relations (Apfelbaum et al. 2012; April et al.

2019).” However, alternative definitions portray colorblind racism as a four-part ideological framework that explains racial matters as “outcomes of nonracial dynamics through abstract liberalism (explaining racial matters in an abstract, decontextualized manner), naturalization

(naturalizing racialized outcomes such as neighborhood segregation), cultural racism (attributing racial differences to cultural practices), and minimization of racism (the idea that racism does not exist) (Bonilla-Silver 2020).” Scholars argue the use of colorblind racial rhetoric is not attributable to only one set of groups or individuals but deployed consciously and unconsciously due to a series of perpetuated traumas where the ideology gets used as a self-defense mechanism to disengage from racially polarized controversies to avoid the “racist” label and to divert from racial resentment (Norton & Sommers 2011; Apfelbaum et al. 2012; Neville et al. 2016;

DiAngelo 2018; April et al. 2019; Bonilla-Silver 2020).

Keeping this framework in mind, how this translates into police culture is two-fold: 1) race is alleged as a non-factor in the apprehension of a suspect and more to do with the facts of the incident at the time of crisis response where the race of the individual is coincidental (April

43 et al. 2012; Cooper 2020), or 2) implicit and explicit biases seep into the decision-making skills of responding officers in the moment that “deny the existence of disadvantages for racial groups, and lead to disparate treatment of individuals of color that ends fatally too frequently (April et al.

2012; Bonilla Silver 2020; 116th Congress 2020; 117th Congress 2021).” Emerging research literature finds that although Black and White populations reach consensus over racial inequity permeated throughout American history, “the average White American now believes that Whites are more victimized by racial bias than Blacks and believe that policies that favor Blacks are no longer reducing inequities in outcomes between Blacks and Whites, but are actually increasing what Whites perceive to be an unfair advantage (Apfelbaum et al. 2012; DiAngelo 2018; Cooper et al. 2020).” Moreover, law enforcement contends that colorblind racism goes both ways. While police officers assess the scene of potential criminal activities, people of color interfere in the process under occasional falsehoods that further disrupt their ability to assess the scene to protect citizens, and continued distrust of their presence requires heightened alertness to protect themselves from both the suspect and the public they took an oath to protect and to serve

(Brunson & Gau 2015; COPS 2015-2017; U.S. Department of Justice 2016; Cooper 2020). As the applicability of colorblind racism in policing remains a heavy source of contention for both law enforcement and communities of color, both populations continue to clash with those representing both Black and Blue intersectional identities stuck in the crossfire (Thompson 2003;

Bolton 2004; Bolton & Feagin 2007; Wilson et al. 2015; Wilson et al. 2016).

Double Consciousness & Shared Perceptions of Identity Hierarchy

Bolton (2003) and Bolton & Feagin (2007) interviewed fifty Black police officers to uncover their perceptions of value in policing along with challenges endured within their respective agencies due to their race. In Bolton's (2003) study, Black police officers encountered

44 various forms of racism that disproportionately impacted their ability to "occupy positions of authority and advance in agencies and environments free from undue hostility and stress (pg.

397)." Bolton & Feagin (2007) identify the extent of a "blue culture" that "creates a pressurized environment where conformity to the white-determined informal norms by a Black officer is highly valued (pgs. 114-116)," and recruitment of Black recruits to change the workplace culture clashes with "social contradictions that agencies must overcome to achieve a reasonably representative police force (pg. 121)." Black officers transform policing through their continued development of resistance against White racial domination by "learning to police, advancing agency, achieving command rank, and require subordinates to police the community according to stated goals of policing rather than the dictates of racism (pg. 223)." The authors conclude that police reform is motivated by political and economic factors and Black police officers through collective resistance and denouncement of racial inequity to transform hiring practices.

Moreover, they indicated that Black police officers are the least likely to initiate deadly use of force practices to Black citizen because "they consciously consider their own experiences with police in order to be fairer and less abusive to all citizens (pg. 264-268)." Therefore, the compelling argument provided by Bolton & Feagin (2007) is that top-tier administrators uphold successful recruitment of Black police officers, promotion into higher positions, and retention trickles down into the prioritization of police-community relationships.

Black police officers have endured substantial amounts of criticism from the workplace and the Black community throughout history (Bolton 2003; Thompson 2003; Bolton & Feagin

2007; Wilson et al. 2015; Duke 2018). In today’s sociopolitical climate, perceptions of their involvement during officer-involved shooting encounters have amplified in a ‘Black Lives

Matter v. Blues Lives Matter’ conflict, and questions of where their loyalty resides get demanded

45 from both populations at a time when visual footage of George Floyd’s death has syndicated across the world (Lett et al. 2020; 116th Congress 2019; PBS 2020; 117th Congress 2021), active protests against the legal system in its handling of Breonna Taylor’s case (The New York Times

2020; Wood 2020), active protests ‘backing the Blue (Cooper 2020), the insurrection of America and the highlighting of Black police officer Eugene Goodman using his body and legal expertise to protect Congress at the Capitol (Wise 2021; Thomas et al. 2021), and additional Black police officers are coming forward to condemn racial inequity in the workplace and within the very places called “home” (NPR 2020; Thomas et al. 2021). As disproportionate officer-involved shootings of Black individuals, continues, calls to action from the Black community to Black police officers entail the use of their public knowledge of Black history and law enforcement training to protect citizens from inappropriate misconduct from their White counterparts and use- of-force that reduces fatality (NPR 2020; Thomas et al. 2021). From a policing perspective, law enforcement agencies seek the Black perspective to incentivize compliance by communities of color and refute racism allegations of racism in how incidents get resolved on the field and the workplace (Bolton 2003; Bolton & Feagin 2007).

The strain of being pulled from both intersectional identities to improve police- community relationships as described above is a primary example of W.E.B. Du Bois’ theoretical concept called double consciousness. Du Bois defines double consciousness as the

Black experience at war with dual conflicting identities to appease two souls and aligns their views and decision-making to where the highest sense of belonging is felt “without losing the opportunity of self-development (Bruce Jr. 1992; Du Bois 1987; Rios et al. 2017; Duke 2018).”

Bolton & Feagin (2007) showcase elicit examples of double consciousness at play for Black law enforcement officers when working in predominantly White organizational infrastructures and

46 policing in Black communities. One participant expressed having to work twice as hard as White officers to gain acceptance and three times as hard to convince the Black community that “you’re not a sellout, you’re truly there to do a job to the best of your ability” because the distrust of police officers has been there so long (Bolton & Feagin 2007, pg. 44). Another expressed the challenges of acceptance and credibility of policing in White communities where assumptions of incompetence, intense scrutiny, and gaslighting further perpetuates continued isolation, unreliability, and minimalization of their government-issued powers (Bolton & Feagin 2007, pgs.

99-104).

Wilson et al. (2015) conducted a similar qualitative study with several research questions exploring racial profiling, police misconduct, and impact of presence in the manner that policing agencies address Black communities through an online 21-question survey to 150 selected Black officers from the National Association of Black Law Enforcement Officers. Out of 150 officers,

102 responses were received to achieve a saturation level of 70.8% (pg. 488). The results of the survey revealed 89% of Black male police officers and 100% of Black female police officers agreed that profiling occurs in their agency (pgs. 490-491), 70% of respondents’ representative of both genders agreed that profiling is condoned in their agency (pg. 491), 93.1% agreed that their worth as law enforcement professionals are recognized in communities of color (pg. 495).

Wilson et al. (2016) highlighted that the effectiveness of policing requires legitimacy and trust, especially in communities of color, because of the longstanding history of officer-involved encounters. They also voiced the accountability of Black community members to take ownership of making a difference in police-community culture by getting involved in recruitment efforts when law enforcement agencies promote hiring opportunities.

47

In a quantitative study, Duke (2018) measured double consciousness to understand the relationship between race and inequalities within law enforcement occupational cultures that prevent Black officers from equal authoritative powers as their White counterparts from identifying levels of risk affecting Black officers' wellbeing. Using a sample of 81 Black police officers from the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executive (NOBLE), the

National Black Police Association (NBPA), and the Indiana Black Troopers Associations, participants completed a survey questionnaire asking questions about their perceptions on police- community relationships, perceptions on race in policing activities, being a Black police officer, and police professionalism using conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, rebellion, and double consciousness as testing metrics. After running bivariate and multivariate regressions, the author's data concluded racial inequality does exist within law enforcement occupational culture for Black police officers. If left unaddressed, the psychological damage inclines Black officers to exit the role altogether or rebel due to “failed trust in a racist organizational culture fueling them with an emotional resentment from being ostracized in a system that habitually sets them up to fail (Duke 2018, pgs. 17-20).”

Officer-Involved Use of Force Risk Assessment

A month after the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America released the Johnson et al. (2019) study, another study challenged its validity by utilizing the very same data on police-involved deaths to uncover a different result: police violence as a leading cause of death for the Black population. On average, police kill 2.8 men per day, responsible for 8% of all homicides with adult male victims between 2012 and 2018

(Edwards et al. 2018). Edwards et al. (2019) used a Bayesian simulation and multilevel models to deduce Black men as having the highest risk of being killed by police throughout their

48 lifetime. According to their findings, (1) Black men are 2.5 times more likely to be killed by police; (2) 1 in 1,000 Black men and boys will be killed by police; (3) Between 25-29 years of age, Black men are killed by police at a rate between 2.8 and 4.1 per 100,000. While police use of force accounts for 5% of all male deaths in the United States, Black men between 20-24 years of age are at risk of police use-of-force, resulting in death at twice the rate. With police homicide at a higher risk for Black men, the public health implications require government intervention to reduce the frequency of such occurrences. However, similar to the recommendations outlined by

Johnson et al. (2019), the researchers call for authoritative data on police violence, disciplinary teeth in the proper handling of independent review of policing, adequate funding of community- oriented policing programs, and increased public accessibility of fatal encounter data for federal and public oversight.

Summary

The analysis of literature discussed in this chapter synthesizes into three notable takeaways: 1) racial barriers limit the advancement of workforce diversity in policing (Bolton

2003; Thompson 2003; Sun & Payne 2004; Bolton & Feagin 2007; Wilson et al. 2016; Duke

2018); 2) police-community relations are fractured due to racial discrimination and trauma on both sides (Thompson 2003; Bolton & Feagin 2007; Wilson et al. 2016; Duke 2018; DiAngelo

2018; Cooper 2020); and 3) lack of empirical evidence has stalled the progression of proactive policy creation of data transparency and accountability metrics to address police misconduct and a source of contention among academic scholars (F.B.I. 2019-2020; Johnson et al. 2019;

Edwards et al. 2019; Lett et al. 2020). This study bridges the gaps between literature and data by investigating the extent of the problem using a different approach that few researchers considered: phenomenology.

49

Empirical researchers critiqued or at minimum attempted to prescribe policy implications on ways to repair fractured relationships between police and communities of color without full cognition of how deeply rooted these conflicts go (Alexander 2010; Amuchie 2016; DeGue et al.

2016; DiAngelo 2018; Dixon 2018; Edwards et al. 2018; Montolio 2018; Edwards et al. 2019;

116th Congress 2019-2020; Cooper 2020; Fagan & Campbell 2020; Johnson 2020). With escalating tensions between the Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter movements, policymakers cannot haphazardly push policy externally forward without internally assimilating into individuals' cultures representative of both sides to explore their truths. Therefore, this study contributes to academic discourse from a new angle where Black law enforcement officers are interviewed about their work and life experiences at a polarized time, calling for their allegiance to conflicting intersectional identities. After collecting data, the researcher conducts an interpretative phenomenological analysis to locate common themes and trends that affirm or refute prior literature claims. Discovered findings support the ability to enhance pre-existing policy reform on police violence or demand a recommitment to transformative justice through an unprecedented sociopolitical lens.

Chapter 3: Methodology

The purpose of the study is to explore the perception of a relationship between the diversification of officers in law enforcement and officer-involved shooting reduction through structured interviews of Black police officers in Boston, Massachusetts. This section describes all the moving parts of how the phenomenological research transpired from beginning to end.

The chapter begins with empirical barriers that require the researcher to pursue the study through a qualitative approach. From an overall qualitative design, the research transitions into a specific phenomenological focus where Black police officers participate in the research and the rationale

50 provided for why. It is also the opportunity for the intended audience to learn more about the researcher’s background as a stakeholder and the ethical actions taken to ensure the authenticity of the approach, data, and findings from a place of unconditional neutrality.

Research Design and Rationale

For scholars and policymakers to better understand the phenomenon behind officer- involved shootings, accessing data to critically assess the relationship between race and law enforcement decisions to initiate deadly force protocols is vital to influencing key government stakeholders to produce and prioritize the advancement of policies addressing accountability, data transparency, cultural competency, and police legitimacy restoration (Fan 2015; Wilson et al. 2016; Edwards et al. 2019; Gau & Paoline 2020). In 2019, the Federal Bureau of

Investigations (FBI) created a national database encouraging, but not requiring, law enforcement agencies at the local, state, and federal level to publicly report each instance of officer-involved shootings with additional supplementary details such as the race of the responding officer and the race of the alleged suspect. While a quantitative secondary analysis uncovers notable trends in policing, only 41% of U.S. law enforcement complied with the federal government’s request.

Due to authenticity concerns, the FBI refused to release the full report from participating agencies until the database reaches 80% (FBI 2020). As of September 2020, statistics regarding agency participation will remain unchanged for the foreseeable future given the FBI has no legal authority to mandate reporting of any data to the Uniform Crime Report (FBI 2020).

With external information unavailable, an alternative to gaining better insight on the phenomenon is for the researcher to access subjects through direct and structured interviews.

This qualitative approach's benefits are that structured interviews conducted maintains methodological consistency and increased trustworthiness among participants. Moreover,

51 engaging participants through a phenomenological lens, the researcher actively listens to the participants' various perspectives by adopting an epoché worldview to significantly reduce bias while also maintaining fundamental levels of data validity (Husserl 1960; Zaner 1975; Bevan

2014).

Methodology

Phenomenology, founded by Edmund Husserl (1859-1938), combines philosophy and research methods to understand or grasp the intentionality behind perceptions using first-hand living experiences of individuals as evidence (Stark & Brown Trinidad 2007; Richards & Morse

2013; Smith & Zalta 2018). Transcendental phenomenology explores the transmission of knowledge rather than objective characteristics to constitute meaning (Moustakas 1994; Richards

& Morse 2013).

Within the framework of critical race theory, the purpose of this study involves using qualitative data to determine whether an association between the recruitment of Black police officers and the reduction of officer-involved shootings exists through an interpretive approach to identify specific trends. The benefit of phenomenology within the critical race theory framework is to collect, analyze, and interpret racially constructed social cues in policing and the magnitude of its impact in police-community relations. Moreover, the theoretical lens of critical race theory advances the needs and involvement of police-community populations and often call for action of change as the suggested remedy (Creswell & Creswell 2018).

Given the notoriety and level of urgency for data to address police reform, the level of academic sophistication and integrity required to tackle the nature of this subject area warrants a comprehensive investigation of facts verified through statements at a detailed level. Qualitative data brings rich and unique experiences that cannot be encapsulated by only one source or one

52 school of thought. As a body of work, the benefits of utilizing the transcendental phenomenological approach are that it improves effectiveness, efficiency, accuracy, provides variety and broader perspectives significantly reduce bias and offer contributions to a deeper understanding of lived experiences by exposing taken-for-granted assumptions about these ways of knowing (Starks & Brown Trinidad 2007). In using this approach, the researcher bracketed any assumptions and knowledge about the Black police officer experiences and entered conversations with participants neutrally without any preconceived notions.

Positionality Statement

"I, for one, believe that if you give people a thorough understanding of what confronts them and the basic causes that produce it, they'll create their program, and when the people create a program, you get action."

- Malcolm X

In my eleven years at Northeastern as a student, the bulk of my writing encompassed topics surrounding criminal justice, African American studies, and law and public policy domains to understand the multifaceted functionality of the law and obtain insight on its applicability toward communities of color. As a Black woman growing up in Bronx, New York, receiving alternative secondary education, and a survivor of generational disenfranchisement

(DiNapoli & Bleiwas 2019), discrepancies between race and power brought constant inquiry towards police legitimacy in Black communities. There are explicit recollections of moments where my family, friends, and I have experienced primary and secondary trauma due to police misconduct; I am beyond thankful to still be able to engage in academic activism to address police legitimacy concerns. Because calls to action involving racial profiling and excessive use of force claims have lacked immediate recourse from policymakers and government officials, I

53 sought to investigate the root of this underlying problem. Throughout my collegiate journey, scholarly articles and chronicled history repeatedly pointed to the disproportionate treatment of

Black individuals in a school-to-prison pipeline where mass incarceration or death are byproducts of systemic and institutional racism interwoven into the criminal justice system

(Nance 2016).

To advocate for students sharing similar backgrounds and seeking mentorship through active support, I dedicated eight out of my ten years as a Resident Assistant creating interactive programming engagements to promote the personal and professional development of marginalized identities positively. Participating in this leadership-oriented role allowed a variety of opportunities to promote social justice, diversity, and inclusion from foundational conversations into actionable policy on public platforms. I also served as a member of the Office of Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution board hearing cases involving institutional infractions and determining appropriate sanctions to hold individuals accountable for violating academic and residential policies. The combination of both roles, along with my interest in criminal justice reform, ignited my eventual interest in further advancing my education on a doctoral level which brought my journey full circle to this very space.

As a researcher, I shared an immediate interest in conducting a study that provides a long-awaited answer to an outstanding problem chronicled for centuries in American history. As a Black woman with intersectional identities involved in this subject matter, I have the privilege to engage in authentic dialogue with Black police officers to observe, hear, and share information that few researchers receive. To research with integrity requires work ethic through a passionate yet neutral lens. My desire is for the facts and the data to speak for itself with the intent of all academic findings to support future policy implications in government. Moreover, future

54 outcomes allow academia to manifest the necessary discourse to foster and restore legitimacy in how citizens view the police and reciprocate how they view communities of color. After the doctoral program, I intend to apply to law school to continue my passions for civil rights advocacy with emphasis on police reform.

Participant Selection

The intent for qualitative data collection is to purposefully select, locate, and obtain information from a small sample and gather extensive knowledge regarding the Black experience in the police force through interviews. Conducting this process with multiple observers “brings alternative perspectives, backgrounds, and social characteristics to reduce limitation to the study

(Neuman 2020).” Information gathering consists of qualitative information regarding how Black

Boston Police Department Officers are recruited, hired, and how many officers leave and why.

Why Black Police Officers?

According to Thompson (2003) and Bolton & Feagin (2007), Black police officers are highly influential in shaping and reshaping police culture within and throughout law enforcement agencies because

“1) they've encountered racist contradictions first-hand and used legal strategies to uncover and fight discrimination which led to greater space for members of nontraditional racial and ethnic groups such as Blacks, Hispanics and women populations in their agencies; 2) when placed in positions at a sufficiently high level (such as Captain, Sergeant, & Lieutenant) their presence prompts sustainable changes in patterns of racial hostility and discrimination in policing that prioritizes that Black experience as law officials and as community members; and

3) they have the ability to be effective role models for younger Black officers, younger Black community members, increase Black participation in all areas of an agency to challenge

55 unethical internal political processes, and work diligently to transform the nature of departmental racism (Thompson 2003; Bolton & Feagin 2007).”

Barton & Barlow (2002) attributes Black Americans as primary stakeholders because of

“1) a vested interest in exposing the practice of racial profiling to being an end to it and protect themselves and their communities from mistreatment by the police; and 2) a vested interest in protecting the integrity of their profession and not perpetuating the perceptions of police engaging in discriminatory practices (Barton & Barlow 2002).” Moreover, the Black police experience recognizes the dichotomy of intersectional conflict among law enforcement and communities of color, with a greater understanding of those issues and can provide exceptionally valid viewpoints on the phenomenon from a place of empathy – a community-oriented skill desired mainly by both groups (Barton & Barlow 2002; Bolton & Feagin 2007; Wilson et al.

2015).

Why Black Boston Police Department Officers?

In reviewing the FBI’s nationwide use-of-force data collection database, the researcher noticed several states with high participation rates: Maine (99%), Delaware (98%), District of

Columbia (87%), Colorado (84%), New Jersey (81%), Alaska (80%), and Massachusetts (70%)

(FBI 2019). The researcher critically assessed the length of time necessary to conduct the phenomenological study, the length of time remaining in her current academic program, and current traveling limitations due to COVID-19 restrictions posed by both government and

Northeastern University travel guidelines into consideration. Given that the researcher is a part- year resident of Massachusetts living close to the Boston Police Department, the research had a greater likelihood of completion if achieved locally. Additionally, Boston Police Commissioner

William Gross is the first African American law enforcement veteran appointed in the City of

56

Boston. Evidence from previous scholars have shown that the reality of racial inequity by White authorities are unreliable and lack understanding of being Black in America (Barton & Barlow

2002; Bolton 2004; Bolton & Feagin 2007; Wilson et al. 2015; Edwards et al. 2019). In this regard, with the unique vantage point of being Black in America along with thirty-three years of professional knowledge as a police officer, Commissioner Gross amended a series of use-of- force policy and procedures to “prevent unnecessary force, ensure accountability and transparency, and build trust with the community (Gross 2020) and collaborated with Boston

Mayor Marty Walsh on police reform where diversifying ranks are strongly recommended by community advocates (Valencia 2020).”

Data Collection

On January 21st, 2020, the researcher attended a Youth & Police in Partnership (Y.P.P.), a community-oriented policing program to strengthen and improve relationship building between urban youth, community members, and law enforcement (Children Services of Roxbury 1995), a panel at Northeastern University’s John D. O’Bryant African American Institute where Boston

Police Commissioner William G. Gross was highlighted as the guest speaker to discuss his affiliation with the Boston community, his career trajectory from police officer to the first

African American Police Commissioner (City of Boston 2020), and an opportunity for live Q&A between himself and audience attendees. As an attendee, the researcher introduced herself to

Commissioner Gross and asked two specific questions – 1) In his experience as a police officer, how has his racial identity impacted his relationships with both community members of color and law enforcement network?; and 2) In reading former President Barack Obama’s Advancing

21st Century Policing, the Boston Police Department (BPD) highlighted having a diverse workforce and in doing so, has encountered officer-involved incidents in smaller numbers when

57 compared to other states; what strategies has BPD crafted for implementation as a blueprint that other states could assimilate into their training infrastructures. Commissioner Gross credited the recruitment, hiring, and training of officers representing community demographics and emphasized the significance of having Black officers as influential towards successful de- escalation of encounters. Additionally, he extended an invitation to the researcher to continue conversations outside of the panel at the police department, access statistical data relevant to the researcher’s inquiry, and connect the researcher with Boston Attorney General Rachel Rollins for further discussions. The researcher and Commissioner Gross exchanged contact information, and upon I.R.B. Approval, the researcher contacted Commissioner Gross to begin data retrieval.

After receiving IRB Approval, the researcher contacted the Boston Police

Commissioner’s office from December 16th, 2020 – January 28th, 2021 to schedule a meeting with Commissioner Gross to discuss potential candidates as participants for the study. In awaiting a response, Boston news outlets reported Gross announcing his retirement on January

28th, 2021, with an immediate effective date on January 29th, 2021 (Rosenberg 2021). On

February 1st, 2021, Mayor Walsh nominated Deputy Superintendent Dennis White as Gross’s successor and the second Black law enforcement official in the City of Boston history promoted to the Commissioner role. On February 2nd, 2021, the researcher contacted the Commissioner’s office by phone and e-mail to request a meeting to discuss the current study. Twenty-four hours later, the Boston Police Department announced the administrative leave of Commissioner White due to resurfaced domestic violence allegations from 1999 (NBC Boston 2021).

Due to ongoing investigations involving the Boston Police Commissioner’s department, the researcher connected with her principal investigator and the IRB committee to introduce an addendum to the snowball sampling strategy. As an alternative recruitment method, the

58 researcher designated new contact points as any law enforcement officer of authority representing police departments in the City of Boston. Each contact received a recruitment flyer by e-mail or social media to promote at local police department sites throughout the City of

Boston and required prospective participants to directly contact the researcher to initiate appropriate data collection protocols outlined in the approved by Northeastern University’s

Institutional Review Board (see Appendix D). In the researcher’s modification of her data collection strategy, it is essential to note that participant risk exposure levels remained unchanged.

Through snowball sampling, qualitative data collection consisted of in-depth semi- structured interviews for ten participant subjects that identify as Black law enforcement officers, have an employment history of providing at least two years of service as within the Boston area, and between 18-60 years of age. The significance of using a semi-structured interview approach is its versatility to examine “uncharted territory with unknown or momentous issues and offers the researcher, as the interviewer, the maximum latitude to spot useful leads and pursue them

(Adams 2015),” and offers participants the freedom to share their thoughts independently to identify subtle trends in the effectiveness and efficiency of a program or organization (Creswell

2003, 2012, 2013; Creswell & Creswell 2018). Here, the semi-structured format allows Black police officer participants to reflect on what motivated their desires to become law enforcement officers, share their experiences as an officer when they are on-and-off duty, and how, if at all, they’ve navigated challenges associated with their intersectional identities in a Black Lives

Matter/Blue Lives Matter paradigm.

After receiving the second I.R.B. approval, interviews were conducted by the researcher.

For meetings, the researcher utilized journal writing to take notes and a security-encrypted laptop

59 to dissect discussed content for interpretive purposes. As a result of in-person restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, electronic correspondence occurred using Zoom. The recorded conversations were digitally archived on a security-encrypted cloud service that only the researcher can retrieve at all times. To preserve the integrity of the study, and before involvement, participants read a consent form that informed parties about possible topic points and confirmed their participation to complete the study. Semi-structured interview questions explored whether there is an association between race, recruitment, hiring, and training of Black law enforcement officers and officer-involved shooting reduction (see Appendix D).

After each concluded interview, the researcher security-encrypted all conversations with participants to prevent data breaches by unauthorized parties. Each interview had its own unique confidential file name to account for scheduled meetings with all participants for the duration of the study. All data was saved in alternative formats (password-protected external hard drive and stored in a Cloud-based system) at locations only known and accessible to the researcher to minimize data security risks. All encrypted data was organized in a systematic fashion to be provided to Northeastern University Internal Review Board (IRB) upon request in the event of an emergency for up to 7 years.

Data Analysis Plan

The purpose of this section is to communicate how the researcher collected, cleaned, organized, and analyzed the data received from 10 Black Police Officers with a working history in Boston, Massachusetts. As described in the data collection component of the study, the collected data took a purposeful snowball sampling approach as a criterion for ensuring selected participants represented a perspective on workforce diversification and officer-involved shootings as a studied phenomenon. After collecting qualitative data, the researcher engaged in

60 an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (I.P.A.). According to Smith et al. (2009), IPA derives from the psychological discipline and accesses participant experiences of the world as gatekeepers while the researcher provides an inside view (Smith et al. 2009; Beck 2021). The interpretative phenomenological analysis requires the researcher to bracket their own views on the subject matter to allow for research participants to authentically share and narrate research findings through their lived experience “without any distortion and/or persecution (Alase 2017;

Qutoshi 2018).”

Here, the researcher focused on two main objectives: “1) corroborate the lived experiences as told by the research participants; or 2) dispute the allegations if they are found to be untrue or not credible (Alase 2017).” The I.P.A. approach consists of advantageous elements such as the accentuation of problematic issues being investigated through sophisticated inquiry, and in-depth data amplified thorough, impartial examinations of shared commonalities in the living experiences of participants (Smith et al. 2009; Alase 2017; Qutoshi 2018; Beck 2021).

While immersed in the data provided by human subjects, there are several steps researchers must take to maintain authenticity of data collection and data analysis processes: “1) Reading and

Rereading; 2) Initial Noting; 3) Developing emergent themes; 4) Search for connections across emergent themes; 5) Move to the next case; and 6) Look for patterns across cases (Smith et al.

2009; Smith & Osborn 2015; Smith 2017; Beck 2021).” In alignment with IPA as a methodological framework, the researcher adhered to each step accordingly to provide a robust portrayal of the phenomenological perspective of the participants directly and findings are further analyzed for “incongruities, concerns, and puzzling aspects (Beck 2021).”

First, for each conducted interview, the researcher embarked on a data coding process to identify common themes, words, or phrases throughout communicated dialogue. Data coding

61 involved the use of NVivo 12 by the researcher to transcribe interviews verbatim and utilize color-coded categorizations for analysis. Second, the researcher re-read each transcript and listened to all recordings used during the interviews again for clarity and to re-identify and confirm the core essence of participants’ lived experiences (Richards & Morse 2013; Alase

2017; Creswell & Creswell 2018). In doing so, the researcher sought descriptive comments shared by the participant pertaining to the phenomenon being studied, linguistic comments exploring the participant’s use of language, and conceptual commentary to identify emergent themes and connections between those themes (Smith et al. 2009; Creswell & Creswell 2018;

Qutoshi 2018; Beck 2021). Third, the researcher drafted a statement informing academic audiences of her findings, specifically, what the research participants experienced and depicted discoveries through a series of visuals – a table showcasing I.R.B. approved questions implemented during the data collection process and research map consisting of the common themes across in-person interviews. Finally, active findings derived from the data branched into continued discourse surrounding the study’s legitimacy and influences future policy implications.

Trustworthiness

There are several considerations to progress the study forward for data collection purposes:

• Accessibility

o The current climate for conducting research and collecting data is unpredictable

and fluid due to the current state of national affairs surrounding the COVID-19

pandemic. Accessibility to government records and scheduling meetings with

subjects of interest over the next six months may impact the sample size of

participants involved in the qualitative approaches. Because of snowball

62

sampling, selection bias is possible and can consequentially impact the validity of

data.

• Technology

o As mentioned previously, the COVID-19 pandemic significantly limited the

number of in-person interactions throughout space and time. While the transition

from in-person interactions to virtual engagements using technological

infrastructures such as Zoom promote remote online learning, it does not consider

the participant's knowledge base of the technical framework. If the respondent is

unable to connect with the researcher or the technology fails due to connectivity

issues, the integrity and reliability of the data are subject to data loss that may not

be available for replication. In the event data recovery fails, the sample size

reduces and compromises the legitimacy of the relationship between variables and

findings.

• Time

o Extensive qualitative data collection involves thorough coding of interview data.

It needs the researcher to be fully knowledgeable of the flow of research activities

in the design (Creswell & Creswell 2018). Additional considerations involve

timely coordination of interviews taking into account the availability of subjects if

they are called to action to address criminal activity. If coding misses data or

incomplete, or challenges to merge the two databases occur, the projected

timeline to proactively defend becomes delayed.

• Validity

63

o There are potential threats to validity using the qualitative phenomenological

approach, such as subjectivity, ambiguity, and concerns of low generalizability to

other similarly situated phenomena due to small sampling size (Tuffour 2017).

Qualitative analysis may yield incomparable or difficult-to-merge findings as a

result of incompatible core experiences.

Ethical Procedures

Bolton (2003), Bolton & Feagin (2007), Matthies et al. (2012), Wilson et al. (2015), and

Wilson et al. (2016) highlighted Black American police officers experiencing Double-

Consciousness (DuBois 1897; Bruce Jr. 1992), with their intersectional identities as Black community members employed in law enforcement agencies. When interviewed about their experiences, Black Americans expressed two narratives: 1) Race as a non-influential factor in their on-and-off duty interactions in the community and workplace; and 2) Race significantly influenced the outcome of police-community encounters in the workplace and the community due to perceptions of their involvement from prior controversial incidences occurring first-hand, witnessed as a bystander, or assumed through media portrayal (Bolton 2003; Bolton & Feagin

2007; Matthies et al. 2012; Wilson et al. 2015; Wilson et al. 2016). The researcher sought to investigate whether previous empirical literature findings are still valid and, if so, determine which narrative is relevant through replication by conducting a phenomenological interview of

Black police officers in Boston, Massachusetts.

According to Polonski (2004), ethical considerations are critical elements to protect participatory human subjects from intended and unintended psychological, financial, and social harms while engaging in a research study (Polonski 2004). For phenomenological research, all participants scheduled for interviews with the researcher receive an informed consent form to

64 notify them of the researcher's background, purpose, length of time involved, handling of data, participant commitment, and risks of taking part in the research. As human subjects, their participation in the qualitative study is voluntary, with the ability to retract consent at any given time (Fleming & Zegwaard 2018). Consent was provided by signed consent (physical or electronically) to the researcher before scheduling interviews. Some of the posed questions may trigger trauma-induced responses where either the participant shares little to no information about their experiences, retracts consent out of fear of potential retaliation, or communicates narratives abundantly where oversharing content falls outside the scope of the intended study.

To protect each human subject's identity and maintain the integrity of the research due to the current police-community climate, all names of interviewees are confidential to the researcher and remain anonymous for public audience consumption through an alias generator.

Each participant received a code name, randomized number to reduce any inherent fears of information disclosure. After concluding, each interview underwent an extra layer of data encryption with password protection and dual authentication processes that only the researcher can access—additional ethical considerations when conducting interviews deal with addressing bias and maintaining neutrality. Current events depict protests between the Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter Movements as tense where conflict escalations between police- community populations are tense, and lack of resolution presents instability to each population's quality of life (Montolio 2018; Cooper 2020). As a Black researcher with a Criminal Justice and

African American Studies background, it is vital to bracket preconceived notions when interacting with human subjects to authentically obtain raw data without researcher influence

(Alase 2017; Creswell & Creswell 2018). Therefore, the researcher actively listened to each

65 participant's interview responses and journaled observations as organically described in real-time as each interview took place.

Summary

The conflicting arguments presented by Johnson et al. (2019) and Edwards et al. (2019) emphasize the importance of public access to data. To assess the validity of Black citizens' disproportionate treatment in officer-involved incidences, both groups heavily relied on journalistic reports to shed light on a very dark problem. Despite recommendations in place, there is a federal reluctance to legally demand law enforcement agencies to recruit representatives to populations served, leaving police departments to gauge the best interests of communities without governmental interference (U.S. Department of Justice 2015; U.S. Civil

Rights Commission 2018). However, 72% of the U.S. police officers in America are White and calls into question how interests depict cultural equity and sensitivity towards racial, and ethnic group concerns (Bolton 2003; Wilson et al. 2015; Wilson et al. 2016; Edwards et al. 2018;

Edwards et al. 2019; U.S. Department of Justice 2019; Gau & Paoline III 2020). Conducting a phenomenological study lends an opportunity to evaluate whether correlations exist between law enforcement agencies and communities of color when security is an overarching theme and goal to move stonewalled policy forward.

Chapter 4: Results

The purpose of this study sought to inquire the extent of the perceived relationship between the diversification of officers in law enforcement and officer-involved shooting reduction qualitatively through ten semi-structured interviews of Black police officers. After conducting these interviews and engaging the data through an interpretative phenomenological analysis, the reported findings revealed a relationship between police diversification and officer- involved shooting reduction in several different superordinate areas/themes: Community,

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Diversity, Race, Training, and Power. When it came to the community, participants emphasized that most police-community conflicts derive from a lack of understanding of culture between demographical groups. The lack of diversity in policing with specific deference to underhired, underfunded, and overworked Black police officers coupled with claims of lack of cultural empathy from non-Black officers increases exhaustion, reduces retention, and locks opportunity away to address growing concerns of safety between police-community members healthily. Race strongly highlighted as a mitigating factor towards incident de-escalation without lethal force, and participants who chose to use it utilized it as a last resort and selected nonlethal locations because of shared affinity with the community. In terms of training, participants agreed that this is a significant area of the opportunity given jurisdictional differences in how recruited officers receive resources after initial hire and lack of consistency in gauging metrics to weed out undertrained staff needing additional guidance. Lastly, some participants expressed internal conflict with continuing in their current roles and shared feelings of powerlessness concerning power. In contrast, others felt hopeful that the current political climate would help reimagine the way policing is currently conducted through the help of Black voices and Black fellowship not only in the community but also within government.

As a reminder, phenomenology required the bracketing of any preconceived notions from the researcher to allow Black police officers' narratives to share authentic experiences working in law enforcement, their cultural identities, and their perceptions of the work climate. Therefore, the following sections below provide the response rate, demographics of the participants, findings, and research maps that explain the synthesized coded data in preparation of discussion and policy recommendations in Chapter 5.

Response Rate

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Through snowball sampling, participant recruitment took place through three organizations: Northeastern University Police Department (NUPD), Boston Police Department

(BPD), the Massachusetts Association for Minority Law Enforcement Organization

(MAMLEO), and the National Organization for Black Law Enforcement Officers (NOBLE).

Each organization received a recruitment flyer from the researcher that circulated across social media platforms, direct e-mail addresses to organizational members, and community-oriented policing programs locally across the city of Boston over three weeks. Ten participants underwent a 30-60 minute recorded semi-structured interview where each received a series of 21 open- ended questions inquiring about their experience as a law enforcement officer in the community when on-and-off duty; whether they've witnessed or participated in officer-involved shootings; their thoughts on the 'Black Lives Matter versus Blue Lives Matter movement,' police legitimacy and retention, followed by the advice shared to the youth and community on a local and national level.

Demographics

Eight out of the ten interviewed participants identified as active-duty police officers in

Boston and employed at different agencies while the remaining two participants recently retired from the Boston Police Department. Two participants worked at Northeastern University’s campus site and the other eight participants derived from the Boston Police Department through

MAMLEO’s and NOBLE’s internal networks. Out of the ten participants, one identified as female, while the remaining nine identified as male. Nine out of the ten participants identified as

Black where five out of the nine participants shared intersectional multiracial heritages as

AfroLatino and AfroLatina. In contrast, one participant identified themselves as Latino. When prompted to describe their relationship to the Black diaspora, they could not fully convey their

68 connection as openly as the other multiracial participants and identified as a possible limitation to the study further discussed in Chapter 5.

Concerning rank, two officers identified as Patrol Officers, two identified as Sergeant, two identified as Deputy Superintendents, one officer identified as a police officer, one officer identified as a Sergeant Detective, one identified as a Police detective, and one identified as a

Superintendent Chief of Investigative Services. Cumulative years in law enforcement ranged from six years to thirty-four years of experience as police officers.

Findings

After concluding each interview, the researcher engaged in an interpretative phenomenological analysis which required transcription of each recorded audio interview manually and digitally using two software programs titled OTTER.AI and NVivo 12. Once transcribed, triangulated data identified patterns for coding purposes. The researcher used a hybrid coding process featuring InVivo and Emotion coding methods to synthesize participant data. Codeweaving was also used to determine how participant narratives inform the extent of the relationship between police diversity and officer-involved shooting reduction (Saldana 2016, pg. 276). According to Saldana (2016), InVivo coding allows the communicated narratives of research participants to “enhance a deeper understanding of culture and worldviews through a series of imagery, symbols, and metaphors for rich category themes; and pulse checks whether the researcher truly grasped meanings significant to the participant (Charmaz 2014; Saldana

2016, pgs. 106-107).” Emotion coding richens the data further by acknowledging their existence and value extend beyond numerical observations but offer “invaluable insight into worldviews and life conditions shaped by real-life experiences (Saldana 2016, pg. 125).” In total, the researcher identified fifty codes which eventually consolidated long sentence structures down

69 into superordinate and subordinate themes for analytic purposes of keywords and issues associated with the researcher’s inquiry (see Figure 2).

Superordinate Themes Subordinate Keywords and Issues Themes 1. Community – The rapport Communication; Change Agent; Emotions; established between police Connection; Duty Language; Perceptions; and the area served. Relationships; Pressure; “Us versus Them;” Youth 2. Diversity – The culmination Recruitment; Hiring; Inclusion; Bridging the Gap; of individuals that represent Retention Impact; Quota; Ethics various racial and ethnic backgrounds. 3. Race – Physical and History; Multiracial; “Us versus Them”; Double- biological differences Identity Consciousness; Identity; between individuals that Intersectionality; Trauma oftentimes encompasses skin color and ethnicity. 4. Training – Skills taught to Mandatory; Academy; Supervision; Chief individuals to affirm role- Optional; Holistic; Deputy; De-escalation; readiness within an Time Experience; Experts; Frequency; occupational field. Split-Second; Mentorship; Language; Leadership 5. Power – The influence to Politics; Economics; Accountability, Audit; change circumstances into Stakeholders; Accreditation; Education; favorable or unfavorable Resources Hardship; Internal Affairs outcomes. Division; Progressive Discipline; Transparency; Uniform Figure 2: Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of Police Semi-Structured Interview Data

Once codified further, categorized narratives explored their views of racial diversity in policing and its impact on improved police-community relationships to reduce officer-involved shootings through a critical race theory lens. From the observance of body language made visible on Zoom and voice tone through different points of questioning by the researcher, some of the participants expressed concerns about being Black while operating in a Blue environment. To highlight what the participants wish the public knew and wants the public to know now, the researcher identified the top five quotes from each superordinate theme and offers a brief

70 analysis to unpack their narratives further for the reading audience to make sense of the participants’ perspective coupled with their experience(s):

Community:

“When I am in my community, my community, I say hi to people in plain clothes. There are times I get hi's back, or times where people think I'm crazy, because I'm a little too friendly. When I am in my community, in a uniform, I tend to get less hi's back. I tend to get the side eye from people. I know what they're thinking like, “oh, boy, why she's saying Hi? What's next? What does she want? Is she about to stop me for something?” And you don't quite get hi’s back or you get the hi’s back, but very reluctantly, with hesitation. And every now and again, you get a handful of people whose just genuinely nice and hi'd back to you and ask how’s your day. You see that. You see that on a daily basis. And because I live in the community, or lived, since I don't currently live there now. I know the difference. I know, the people who would normally say hi to me outside of uniform versus when I'm in uniform.” (Participant #2 2021)

“I grew up in the inner city and I wanted to play a role in making our community safer. I also wanted to play a role in bridging the gap between law enforcement and the community. Growing up, there was always friction between the police and the community, and I wanted to be someone who played a role in fixing that. I saw a lot of my friends going to jail getting into a lot of trouble and I wanted to play a role in figuring out how we change that, and I believe that in policing, there's the ability to connect with communities in a greater lens than just law enforcement.

Without positive relationships in the community, without knowing your stakeholders, understanding the perspective of your stakeholders, then you cannot be a successful police department. I believe that every police agency should have a mission of community policing, really working in partnership with community and community stakeholders to understand how they perceive police and how they want police to police in their communities. I believe that community engagement and community policing should be at the forefront of every conversation regardless of if it's involving the S.W.A.T. team or the gang unit or the drug unit, there's still needs to be an element of understanding community and bringing in community voices into the conversation around policing.” (Participant #4 2021)

“When I started working in 1979, they had just instituted what they call community policing, where police officers played a more diligent and active role in connecting with people in the community as opposed to just arresting people. At one point, people would not call police when my partner were there. But after about seven, eight months, they would call police on people that they would never do it before because they trusted us. I mean, we played football with the kids, we played basketball. We didn't just knock on the doors to ask questions. We knocked on doors for other reasons than being proactive about policing responsibilities. We would check in on elderly people and things of that matter. And it worked. And I was fascinated with the concept.

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Based on my experience in homicide, I didn't think the department was doing a great job in maintaining communication with surviving members of homicide victims. I made it clear that we'd stay in touch with someone to call on the date of the death or birthday to say hi, how are you? If the case was not solved, there was constant communication with that family. I would speak at churches, to groups who are surviving members of homicide victims. I would speak about how they are a member of an organization of a group that they didn't ask to be involved in. And I would remind them and let them understand that we may not feel your pain, but we are here to help you. And that's how I transformed community policing.” (Participant #10 2021)

Interviewed participants expressed themselves as active members in the Black community in and out of uniform. Each participant echoed the reason for becoming officers was to make meaningful strides in restoring police-community connections and vulnerably recollected specific encounters of traumas at police officer hands as significant motivating factors to serve as change agents to correct historical instances of injustice against Black citizens.

They denounced the idea of an “Us versus Them” mentality where allegiance is pledged solely to law enforcement agencies, especially when specific actions present a further detriment to preserving peace, equality, and respect across both populations. Instead, they identified communication issues as one of the primary sources of conflict needing correction due to persisting misconceptions and stereotyping of others regardless of race that escalate tensions exponentially due to feelings of hurt and unaddressed lingering trauma from past misconduct on national levels (see Appendix A).

All ten participants highlighted increased diversity among law enforcement agencies and officer ranks to influence the changes necessary to internally revamp the way society views police officers from the inside and out. Moreover, outside pressures in the form of continued police-community advocacy from active youth group organizations and government agencies to fuel the urgency of the present was strongly encouraged because of the belief that increased

72 racial representation empowers their ability to reform the culture of policing into favorable outcomes that reduces the likelihood of officer-involved shootings.

Diversity:

“We have minority organizations, and you know, always includes Women, Cape Verdeans, Latinos, African Americans, and people who can relate. I think that has helped a lot to diversify the department. I know we still have a long way to go. And not only do we try to work within the department, but we've also been very proactive in working in minority communities.” (Participant #1 2021)

“I'll go with now and I can only speak for my department once again. I love it. I love when I hear our deputies say, “Hey, we need more minorities in this department. Hey, I want to get to a point where we are the most diverse department. Hands down regardless of where we all are, regardless of if we're a university were the most diverse department.” That brings me joy because it's needed. To have a one size fits all police department, in a community especially urban community is extremely unrealistic. You need people to be able to relate to whoever's responding, you need people to be able to understand the culture, and you need people to be able to understand the language. I don't speak Mandarin. I'm learning the Indian culture, but I don't really know it. I have a familiarity with African culture and the Haitian culture because of my friends, but that's not my background. To have I have a department that has Indian, Asians, Africans, Haitians, Latinos is great. So it fills my heart knowing that my department wants that.” (Participant #2 2021)

“I'd like to see more diversity and inclusion initiatives within policing. I'd love to see the hiring practices revamp to put diversity and inclusion at the forefront of hiring. I'd like to see more officers of color elevated into supervisory positions. I'd like to see Black and Brown voices being in the conversation and playing a role in advising policy. You know, I'd like to see them really take into consideration that Black and Brown officers are experts and subject matter experts in various fields. That talk about community, and we need to be a part of the conversation. And so it's not just about the senior level management, but it's really taking the perspective of the officers and the people at the bottom level and understanding our experiences and perspectives from the community.

You know, our department is still overwhelmingly white. Access to specialized units, it's still overwhelmingly white, our supervisory ranks are still overwhelmingly white. And so I think that we just need to do better in terms of recruitment and making sure that their system in place to really bring diversity to the forefront.” (Participant #4 2021)

“It's kind of been a lot because, you know, being a Boston Police Officer, I don't think we have enough representation as officers of color in within communities in Boston. I see the difference of white officers versus black officers responding and I see the separation of cultural understanding. It makes it harder for a white officer to relate to certain situations than a black

73 officer. I think, you know, just understanding the culture alone is very big on de-escalating. If I come and respond to a call and I hear people talking loud, guys wearing the sagging pants or yelling the N word, I know that they're talking and just explaining themselves and it's not threatening. Whereas someone who hasn't lived our culture, and they see what they see on videos or what they see on TV as the way black people respond, it's harder for them to understand and it goes fromm zero to 100 real quick.” (Participant #6 2021)

Participants unanimously agreed that diversity in the form of the increased recruitment, hiring, and retention of Black police officers is tremendously beneficial to law enforcement and communities of color when it comes to cultural competency. One participant emphasized the importance of language and shared examples of how the skill of diversification applies:

"You need people to be able to relate to whoever's responding, you need people to be able to understand the culture, and you need people to be able to understand the language. I don't speak Mandarin. I'm learning the Indian culture, but I don't really know it. I have a familiarity with African culture and the Haitian culture because of my friends, but that's not my background (Participant #2 2021)."

Here, the participant expresses the willingness to learn other strategies to connect with individuals representing different communities, affinities, and cultures to enhance police- community interactions without offending either party. Diversity, as defined by another participant, not only recruits Black police officers but promotes them to higher positions while also creating an open forum for law enforcement officers at all hierarchal tiers in rank to have input on strategies to improve race relations not only within predominantly White departments but serve as a model for other departments to embody. Optically, having police officers that visually represent the racial composition of the Black community creates ease among the public to reduce perceptions of officer-involved conduct and that their arrival comes from a place of good intentions.

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Another participant vocalized significant ramifications when lack of cultural understanding of the Black community gets misinterpreted as a threat and expressed the importance of cultural awareness whenever de-escalation tactics deploy. They shared the belief of White police officers responding to Black community members based on media portrayals of

Black individuals. Additional participants noted that when diversity in hires and training became a priority within their respective departments, fewer conflicts transpired and rarely escalated to the national cases currently observed across other states. Despite efforts towards diversity and inclusion of recruitment and hiring, most of the Black police participants shared retention of

Black police officers is at a sharp decline due to lack of promotional mobility, double-standard political scrutiny, and racism. As a result, many of them sought refuge among their affinity groups to seek resources to overcome racial barriers in their communities and places of employment.

Race:

“Finally, I pulled him aside and I said, “Hey, well, I'm not raising my voice that you, I'm not trying to jam you up, I have a job I have to do. And if I can get this job taken care of, you'll be on your way. All I need you to do is listen to me, but it's going to start with, can you tell your people to just lower their voice, back off, and let us do our job?” And he looked at me sideways and he thought about it. And he said for you? Yes. And I knew what he meant by that. I think if an Officer of another color approached him and tries to say the same words to de-escalate, he still would have vented before he jumped right into tell his friends to back off and would have argued a little bit more. I feel he eventually would have (de-escalated), but I don't think he would have as quickly as he did if the officer wasn't of a darker hue.” (Participant #2 2021)

“Honestly, on duty, I still see myself as a Black man, to be honest, off duty, there's a little bit more hesitancy to do things. And when I get pulled over, I still get nervous. Although I'm a police officer, because for one officer never know who their dealing with. I don't know who the officer is, don't know if they're having a bad day, things like that. So you just never know. I still get nervous and just walking through scenarios is you just you just never know what's going on.” (Participant #3 2021)

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“I think certain people can get away things based on who they are and what race they come from and others are oftentimes penalized harsher. So I think that officers of color oftentimes receive severe punishment than their White peers. But oftentimes the same or less than an infraction so you know White peers can get away with more than Black peers.” (Participant #4 2021)

“Policing in the Black community is extremely, extremely difficult because of media portrayal. However, policing in the Black community as a Black officer, if you are there to actually build bonds and build bridges and cultivate and maintain relationships, it is not that hard. I don't believe in bad neighborhoods.

The difficulties that come with being a Black police officer policing in a Black community is that sometimes you're held to a different standard than your white counterparts. Because I personally feel, and I could be wrong, but I personally feel like Black people have been so... yeah, I'm very careful about what I say. I feel like Black people have been so mentally contorted, to think that mistreatment from people who don't look like them is not as bad as the people who look like them, if that makes sense. And I find that in that, there is a deep level of trauma that has been ingrained and tethered into our DNA, where you could see a Black police officer do something extremely egregious. And, you know, even the people in in the community that know, that have Black skin tone will seemingly be more upset with that officer than the white officer sometimes, and that breaks my heart.” (Participant #5 2021)

Black police officer participants shared that while employed within law enforcement agencies, their title does not make them less susceptible to racial profiling, police misconduct, and fear of life loss in an officer-involved incident. One participant described feelings of nervousness as an off-duty civilian caught in a traffic stop by another police officer because, depending on the day, the unpredictability of the stop brings significant discomfort. Another participant with a military background shared that they still encountered police misconduct involving an arrest where they were cuffed for a crime they did not commit. All participants collectively agreed that they had witnessed Black peers receiving harsher penalties contrasted to

White peers regarding accountability for police misconduct.

Finally, a significant finding relevant to the research question pursued, found that nine out of ten participants shared that their racial identity helped de-escalate incidents within communities of color. Specifically, one participant noted that if another officer of a different race

76 addressed the incident highlighted above, particularly a White police officer, the situation would not diffuse. On the other hand, one participant expressed sole reliance on their skillset sufficiently addressed community conflicts without reference to race.

Training:

“The training we received is the academy training. Unfortunately, Massachusetts has several different academies, unlike most states that just has one Academy, and everyone goes through the same Academy and receives the same training. Massachusetts, I'm not even going to begin to count how many academies, but I can tell you there's a Mass State Police Academy, there's the MBTA Academy, there's a Boston Police Academy. Boston Police Academy is separate from most of the academies that other agencies go to such as Walpole, Brookline, and Cambridge. Those are different academies.

The changes I would like to see aren't necessarily with my department. The changes I would like to see are with other departments throughout the United States and in small towns and communities. I would like them to do something similar to what our departments doing. I would like them to give training to new officers coming out of the police academy. I would like them to continuously give diversity trainings and bias trainings and nonbias trainings and trainings for people who are going through mental health crises and people who may have disabilities, whether that be a mental disability or physical disability, and training about people who are suffering from opioids. Along with that training, I would love to see these departments when they do find an officer, who, even if the officer doesn't feel like they were 100% wrong in the way they responded to a stop, that they give a little bit more transparency to the community to the issue to the community, that they don't just say, we'll tell you when we're ready to tell you.” (Participant #2 2021)

“The training aspect is more for like, you know, recognizing threats and being able to understand that when you're in a bad position, but a lot of it is, is you growing up, your upbringing, with how you understand that culture to be. And if you haven't really been around people or been around people of other culture, there's no way you can understand that. And me, being a minority officer, I understand that and it's so much easier for me to navigate or to de- escalate these types of situations.” (Participant #6 2021)

“You know, so the training, always thought of police work, you’re kind of your own boss. They give you the car, they give you the keys and you go out there and you do what you have to do. So you bring a large part of yourself to that job. The training, you know, you go through scenarios when you go through training and stuff, but you know, it's never really like real life. You know, you roleplay and things like that a little bit, you know, in training, but not enough to really deal with real world because it's just a crazy world out there. So you get that by experience, you know, things that you go through on the street and the incidents that you're involved in.” (Participant #9 2021)

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“I spent 98% of my career in investigative units so I didn't receive some of the training that the frontline officers, the ones who really do the work, I like to say, had received, but I do know that it was out there, and they had them. I know they had dramatically improved those courses. For frontline officers over the last 27 years. I used to hear about it from new guys, "look, I don’t want to go to this. I don't want to go. I didn't want to go." You know, it's like anything else people kind of, but they'd go to it.” (Participant #10 2021)

When it came to training, various responses populated from each participant where they occurred mandatorily or infrequently, and most participants shared that they received mandatory police training when they first began their careers in law enforcement. However, once the training transpired, they were left to their own devices to continue their learning endeavors as they saw fit elsewhere without much oversight unless an incident occurred to warrant it. As one participant alludes, Massachusetts' training offerings across the state facilitate differently and cover different topics once or twice per year. Several participants had experience facilitating de- escalation training and noted the facilitations as voluntary where they did not receive payment for hosting these events as they were considered in-service(s). After the training concludes, officers must determine their own best de-escalation strategies, another participant notes. When asked about training reliance for de-escalating conflicts within the Black community, more than half of the participants noted their racial identity helped strengthen their successful applicability of tactics learned in training to prevent lethal force from being used. However, as Black police officer participants in the Boston Police Department went up in rank, their participation in training declined because their investigatory work trajectory did not require consistent attendance. As training seemingly evolved based on increased calls for accountability and transparency from marginalized communities, participants noted expressions of disdain from their White colleagues in attending.

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With two participants from Northeastern University Police Department (NUPD) and eight officers from Boston Police Department (BPD), there is an essential distinction for readers regarding the training. First, Northeastern University receives its policing powers through the

State police under M. G. L. Chap. 22C §63 (MA Legislature 2021) whereas Boston Police

Department officers receive their powers under M. G. L. Chapter 41§96 B (MA Legislature

2021). For Northeastern, police officers have annual mandatory training across numerous areas ranging from diversity to cognitive behavior training. In contrast, as all participants agreed that training outside of campus policing operates inconsistently, and despite recruits receiving training simultaneously as they start their law enforcement career, it only takes one to impact their image negatively to the public.

Power:

“A lot of pressures come from outside the police department.” (Participant #1 2021)

“A lot of people don't understand that there are officers who believe in Black Lives Matter. There are officers, such as myself, who are Black, and my life matters. Not Blue Lives Matter is I am Black and my life matters. So if there's a way to fix this, then yes, I'm all for it. It doesn't help that when I'm in uniform, I'm looked at as somebody completely different or not black. So yeah, it changes the dynamic. And it changes the way people look at things. And it changes the way some officers look at things when they see that, hey, you were just trying to help that person and talk to them and they just walked away from you.” (Participant #2 2021)

“I think we're held accountable through the Internal Affairs Division. I don't have any specific examples that I can think of off the top of my head, but I think the internal affairs division is supposed to play a key role in accountability but I'm not sure if it does.” (Participant #4 2021)

“It just seems like the smaller population of police officers, which is not many of us, officers of color on this department. We seem to be fired at a higher rate. If we're going to be totally honest, it's the truth. So yeah, so if we want to speak frank about what I feel happens, that would be my answer. I feel like officers of color are held to a higher standard when it comes to disseminating punishments. I feel like, you know, White officer will get a slap on the wrist while a Black officer will get a stomp on the hand.” (Participant #5 2021)

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“Now in a police department, when you move up the ranks, particularly as a Black person, there's no doubt about it. You're not really respected a lot. You know, coming from my community where White officers who being in a command staff ranking, it was primarily a position that they would have. And it was clear at times, within that you were not appreciated. The Union wanted me out because I was a Sergeant and not a Lieutenant. Now, there's been situations in the past where people less than lieutenants would have jobs like that and get the pay for it. As a commander, well, "we're not going to have you move, but we can't get you pay." So in other words, it would do me a favor by not ordering me removal, because I didn't meet the rank requirements although that had been done in the past. For white officers? So the reality is, we're not going to force you out. But we've agreed that you should stay as a Sergeant Detective, but you're only going to get Sergeant Detective pay. Now others will get Lieutenant detective's pay.” (Participant #10 2021)

A vast majority of the participants shared that police-community conflicts arise from power imbalance occurring between both populations. On one end, historically, the police uniform, especially after George Floyd’s recorded death over the summer, holds a negative connotation that shuns Black officers from cultural participation in the Black community while wearing it because of labeling as “Uncle Tom,” or “not Black,” as several participants highlighted in their interview responses. Another perspective shared by a participant involves the unknown role of the Internal Affairs division for misconduct incidents regarding accountability metrics and how connection building across law enforcement agencies occasionally produces lesser punishment to White police counterparts. As one participant notes, because the police departments and their higher-ranking officials are overwhelmingly White, Black police officers work ten times as hard to move up in rank based on merit (Participants #4, #5, #10 2021). All participants' additional insight entails the influential power that Black Lives Matter and governmental agencies play towards effective implementation of policies to address concerns of officer-involved shootings, compliance of police authority, and implementation of accountability policies.

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According to eight out of the ten participants, power imbalance affects police-community relationships and rapport in the workplace. Many participants described feelings of powerlessness in voicing policy changes that open up the possibility of improved legitimacy in policing. When participants ranked Sergeant and higher implemented increased policy standards and accountability metrics to reduce police-community conflicts, they were taken less seriously and continuously had their authority questioned by their White counterparts. One participant noted an unsuccessful attempt to be removed from office by the police union. More than half the participants expressed seeking opportunities elsewhere due to continued racial barriers preventing their ability to thrive in law enforcement successfully. Moreover, they shared an inability to discuss nationally controversial officer-involved shooting cases or quarterbacking, as one participant noted, due to racial division that further proved detrimental to the work environment where collaboration and consortium are required.

Summary

The findings of this study suggest the importance of diversity within the police departments, the holistic inclusion of Black police officers in decisionmaking positions, and the need to incorporate recommendations to improve police-community relationships in hopes to restore the legitimacy of the uniform. Through an interpretative phenomenological analysis, the participants shared racial division exists within the community and within their employment agencies where one organization offers training at a higher frequency than the other. Despite the difference in police rank, the officers collectively expressed needing universal accountability measures and increased metrics to consistently apply on a national scale that prioritizes de- escalation training that does not resort to officer-involved outcomes.

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While interviewing the participants, eight out of ten participants shared they did not witness an officer-involved shooting nor involved in one as defined by the study's scope. For the two individuals that did, they shared their experience as a split-second decision used as a last resort for self-defense purposes. One out of the two participants voiced their decision to engage in an officer-involved shooting where their suspect was shot in a non-lethal location because both needed to go home at the end of the night. The data revealed that the Black officers perceived themselves as influential towards reducing officer-involved incidents because of their shared racial and cultural affinity. However, due to racial barriers preventing their upward mobility in the workplace to increase diversity and inclusion in the recruitment, hiring, and retention practices in their employed agency, they are extremely handicapped, and at least half sought retirement or other vocations where their voices were not only heard but also mattered.

Thus, increased police diversity in the form of consistent recruitment, hiring, and training of

Black police officers influences the likelihood of officer-involved shooting reduction. Although the results could be entirely coincidental, future qualitative research should study this phenomenon further to inquire police reasoning to engage in officer-involved incidences and the type of program initiatives used to influence their decisions for the types of force used per encounter.

After reviewing the data, the researcher aligns her findings to the first premise. Although the level of saturation is lower than initially anticipated, "one cannot assume the data saturation has not been reached because it is not about the numbers per se, but about the depth of the data itself (Burmeister & Aitken 2012; Fusch & Ness 2015)." The quality of the interviews that each participant provided offers an extensive discussion and outlook that carried a mean total of at least 20 years of police experience across two departments operating in two different law

82 enforcement categories under a similar umbrella of protecting and serving communities in need.

It is here within Chapter 5 where revisitation of prior and current literature, prior and current political events, and phenomenological perspective from interviewed participants informs a healthy discussion about where the subject matter goes from here in terms of policy implications and recommendations towards resolving the research question at hand.

Chapter 5: Recommendations and Conclusions

As noted in Chapters 1 through 3, the purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the relationship between Black police officers’ lived experiences participating in police diversity initiatives and their perceived impact toward officer-involved shooting reduction through semi-structured interviews of ten Black police officers in Boston, Massachusetts. This final chapter revisits the scope of the problem identified as needing remedy, a brief synopsis of how prior academic scholarship and public stakeholders viewed and attempted to resolve the problem, the research question prompting an investigation by the researcher, the methodology used for data collection, and the findings uncovered using an interpretive phenomenological analysis approach. Next, the chapter engages the intended reading audience with an informed discussion that includes an urgent call to action to prioritize the repairing of police-community relationships, followed by policy implications regarding the impact of racial diversity in policing and recommendations for re-legitimizing policing in America. Lastly, the chapter concludes with an exploration of the study’s limitations and areas of opportunity for future scholarship.

Summary of the Study

As a recap, across 30 years and arguably longer, the use of excessive and prohibited use- of-force techniques has resulted in the permanent incapacitation and death of Black men, women, and children have been at the hands of White police officers (DeGue et al. 2016;

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Edwards et al. 2018; Edwards et al. 2019; Fagan & Campbell 2020). Black community members significantly distrust law enforcement due to the traumatic history of police abuse (Bolton &

Feagin 2007; Wilson et al. 2015; Wilson et al. 2016). In contrast, White police officers contend the use-of-force applied was necessary due to failed compliance of legal commands when attempting to de-escalate conflicts that place the community at risk of imminent danger and feel allegations of racism are significantly displaced (Cooper 2020). Moreover, the continued claims of racial injustice between the two populations have ignited national stakeholder attention from federal and state governments and public officials, and academic scholars.

Controversial officer-involved shootings of Black Americans have raised serious concerns among the public about whether those hired to protect and serve the community abuse their government-issued powers to target communities of color intentionally. While some prior literature suggests race as a nonfactor in police encounters with Black citizens (Brunson & Gau

2015; Johnson et al. 2019; Cooper 2020), the publicly viewed nine-minute-and-twenty-nine- second video of George Floyd, the ongoing trial of Derek Chauvin (Forliti et al. 2021), the most recent shooting of Daunte Wright ten miles away from George Floyd’s death site, and the cases before them tell a different story (BBC 2021).

Another set of literature, primarily from Black scholars, chronicled historically racist undertones within the blueprint of policing that targets Black citizens faster than other demographics (Bridges 2019). Verification of scholar claims derived from the voices of Black law enforcement officers whose stories were often discounted and silenced by their employers and also by their culture (Bolton 2003; Bolton & Feagin 2007; Wilson et al. 2015). Pre-existing literature dating back to the Kerner Commission era (COPS 2015-2017; Obama 2011) and brought current with the researcher’s study sought to confirm their sentiments. However, lack of

84 access to government data, gaps in federal and state policies on police reform, and division among scholars regarding the extent of racial influence in recruiting, hiring, training, and retaining Black police officers to reduce officer-involved encounters with the Black community remained unclear (Decker & Smith 1981; Barton 2002; DeGue et al. 2016; Desilver et al. 2020).

Therefore, the researcher initiated a study to determine the legitimacy of the claims presented by both law enforcement, communities of color, and governmental stakeholders.

The research question for the phenomenological study was: “What is the relationship between Black police officers’ lived experiences participating in Diversification of Officers in

Law Enforcement (D.O.L.E.) initiatives and their perceived impact toward officer-involved shooting reduction?” To obtain the insight necessary to answer this research question effectively, the researcher conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with ten Black police officers representing multiple law enforcement agencies in Boston, Massachusetts.

The qualitative study used a phenomenological approach that sought participants’ narratives to verify the problem identified by the researcher and inform future policy implications to resolve it without interference. Using a critical race theory framework, the researcher explored the relationship between the recruitment of Black police officers and officer- involved shootings. As noted in Chapter 3, the benefit of utilizing phenomenology and critical race theory together is to “collect, analyze, and interpret racially constructed social cues in policing and the magnitude of its impact in police-community relations (Creswell & Creswell

2018).” While using phenomenology, the researcher bracketed any personal views of the subject matter and conducted a comprehensive investigation of facts to reduce bias.

In terms of recruitment, the researcher reached out to several organizations to retrieve a snowball sample upon receiving IRB approval from Northeastern University to interview at least

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10 Black police officer participants in a 30-60 minute semi-structured interview on a virtual conference application called Zoom. From December 2020-January 2021, the researcher attempted to connect with the former Boston police commissioner to recruit Black police participants. However, after receiving communications from local news outlets regarding the commissioner’s retirement, the researcher attempted to connect with Boston’s deputy superintendent. Upon notification of the deputy superintendent’s administrative leave, the researcher connected with her local network of Northeastern University colleagues, which later led to introductory communications with the Northeastern University Police Department, Boston

Police Commissioner’s Office, Minority Association for Law Enforcement Officers

(MAMLEO), and National Organization for Law Enforcement Officers (NOBLE). Additional recruitment detailed the creation of a flyer announcement syndication on several social media platforms.

From February – March 2021, the researcher recruited and interviewed ten Black police officer participants where each received questions about their rank, years of experience in policing, reason(s) for becoming a police officer(s), thoughts on police-community relationships as past or current employees, recollection of involvement in officer-involved shootings, inquiries on length of time employed as police officers and why, and viewpoints on whether the restoration of police legitimacy is needed. After each interview, the researcher conducted an interpretative phenomenological analysis where each recording was by hand and through several transcription software platforms. Once transcribed, the researcher reviewed and verified the accuracy of all ten interviews to locate “codes” or word frequencies that participants repeatedly communicated. The researcher identified fifty codes through manual and digital coding, which

86 were consolidated further into five central themes: Community, Diversity, Race, Training, and

Power.

Findings

While conducting an interpretative phenomenological analysis, the researcher engaged the data using a hybrid coding process where InVivo and Emotion coding synthesized participant data into superordinate and subordinate themes. The first theme, community, reviewed the rapport established between police and the area served. Subthemes involved the participant's communication styles, familiarity and connection with the community, and the degree to which they felt obligated to serve as change agents against an "Us versus Them" mentality. Participants expressed themselves as active members of the Black community with and without wearing their uniforms. Each participant echoed that the reason for becoming officers was to make meaningful strides in restoring police-community connections and vulnerably recollected specific encounters of traumas at police officer hands as significant motivating factors to serve as change agents to correct historical instances of injustice against Black citizens. They identified communication issues as one of the primary sources of conflict needing correction due to persisting misconceptions and stereotyping of others regardless of race that escalate tensions exponentially due to feelings of hurt and unaddressed lingering trauma from past misconduct on national levels

(see Appendix A).

The second superordinate theme to derive from the data was diversity or the culmination of individuals representing various racial and ethnic backgrounds. Subthemes reviewed participant perceptions on the recruitment, hiring, and retention of Black police officers and their perceived impact on police-community relationships as to whether they felt included to help bridge the gap or whether they felt their employment was a quota hire. Participants unanimously

87 agreed that diversity in the form of the increased recruitment, hiring, and retention of Black police officers is tremendously beneficial to law enforcement and communities of color when it comes to cultural competency. Participants expressed willingness to learn other strategies to connect with individuals representing different communities, affinities, and cultures to enhance police-community interactions without offending either party. They shared the belief of White police officers responding to Black community members based on media portrayals of Black individuals. Despite efforts towards diversity and inclusion of recruitment and hiring, most Black police participants shared that retention of Black police officers is at a sharp decline due to lack of promotional mobility, double-standard political scrutiny, and racism. As a result, many of them sought refuge among their affinity groups to seek resources to overcome racial barriers in their communities and places of employment.

The third superordinate theme associated with the research question is race or physical and biological differences between individuals that often encompass skin color and ethnicity.

Subordinate themes described the history of race in policing, how the participants racially identified, and intersectional traumas uncovered between the two. Black police officer participants shared that while employed within law enforcement agencies, their title does not make them less susceptible to racial profiling, police misconduct, and fear of life loss in an officer-involved incident. All participants collectively agreed that they had witnessed Black peers receiving harsher penalties contrasted to White peers regarding accountability for police misconduct. Nine out of ten participants shared that their racial identity helped de-escalate incidents within communities of color. Specifically, one participant noted that if another officer of a different race addressed the incident highlighted above, particularly a White police officer,

88 the situation would not diffuse. In comparison, one participant expressed sole reliance on their skillset sufficiently addressed community conflicts without reference to race.

The fourth superordinate theme pertains to training which defined the skills taught to individuals to affirm role-readiness within an occupational field. Subordinate themes inquired upon the frequency and type of training received by the participants from their corresponding law enforcement agencies, such as mandatory, optional, holistic, followed by the length of time.

It also inquired whom the individuals facilitating the training are along with their qualifications.

When it came to training, various responses populated from each participant where they occurred mandatorily or infrequently, and most participants shared that they received mandatory police training when they first began their careers in law enforcement. However, once the training transpired, they were left to their own devices to continue their learning endeavors as they saw fit elsewhere without much oversight unless an incident occurred to warrant it. When asked about training reliance for de-escalating conflicts within the Black community, more than half of the participants noted their racial identity helped strengthen their successful applicability of tactics learned in training to prevent lethal force from being used. However, as Black police officer participants in the Boston Police Department went up in rank, their participation in training declined because their investigatory work trajectory did not require consistent attendance. As training seemingly evolved based on increased calls for accountability and transparency from marginalized communities, participants noted expressions of disdain from their White colleagues in attending.

The final superordinate theme was power, or the influence to change circumstances into favorable or unfavorable outcomes. Subordinate themes reviewed the political and economic resources involved in stakeholders maintaining or relinquishing accountability metrics such as

89 audits, accreditation, progressive discipline from Internal Affairs, and perspectives about their treatment in the Black community and within law enforcement agencies when on-and-off duty. A vast majority of the participants shared that police-community conflicts arise from the power imbalance occurring between both populations. Because police departments are overwhelmingly

White, with higher-ranking officials overwhelmingly White, Black police officer participants felt they had to work ten times as hard to move up in rank based on merit. All participants' additional insight entails the influential power that Black Lives Matter and governmental agencies play towards implementing policies to address officer-involved shootings, compliance of police authority, and implementation of accountability policies. Many participants described feelings of powerlessness in voicing policy changes that open up the possibility of improved legitimacy in policing. When participants ranked Sergeant and higher implemented increased policy standards and accountability metrics to reduce police-community conflicts, they were taken less seriously and continuously had their authority questioned by their White counterparts. More than half the participants expressed seeking opportunities elsewhere due to continued racial barriers preventing their ability to thrive in law enforcement successfully. Moreover, they shared an inability to discuss nationally controversial officer-involved shooting cases or quarterbacking, as one participant noted, due to racial division that further proved detrimental to the work environment where collaboration and consortium are required.

Conclusion

A qualitative phenomenological study of ten Black police officers in Boston, Massachusetts, yielded the following findings:

1. There is an existing perception of a relationship by Black officers between police

diversity training participation and officer-involved shooting reduction.

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2. Consistently trained police officers are perceived to be less likely to use lethal use of

force.

3. Black officer participants perceived themselves as less likely to use lethal use-of-force

towards Black community members.

4. Black police officers noted that when used properly, lethal use of force is a last resort, but

depending on the circumstance, the decision to apply lethal force are split-second self-

defense decisions rather than malice because they are thinking about the impact made

towards themselves, the community, and their families.

5. Training infrequently occurs, forcing officers to rely on their skill set to determine

applicable use-of-force strategies.

6. There is a perception between officer’s race and crisis management response in the

community.

7. Based on the respondent’s experiences, most Black community members are more likely

to comply with de-escalation directives from Black police officers than non-Black

counterparts.

8. The history of policing mars police-community relationships and the integrity of the

uniform degrades as officer-involved incidences reach national attention regardless of

whether the incident occurred in the city of Boston or elsewhere.

9. Underlying trauma is present for both Black police officers and the Black community.

From these findings, the following conclusion was drawn: Increased police diversity in the form of consistent recruitment, hiring, and training of Black police officers influences the likelihood of officer-involved shooting reduction.

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Discussion

The phenomenological study involving ten Black police officer participants uncovered motivations for becoming a police officer, experience policing in Boston, the types of police diversity initiatives they have participated in, and their thoughts on police-community relationships. Emerging from these conversations arose components of Crenshaw et al. (1995) and Delgado et al. (2012) critical race theory, W.E.B. DuBois’ double-consciousness theory, and reiterations of prior literature review findings from Bolton (2003), Thompson (2004), Bolton &

Feagin (2007), and Wilson et al. (2015-2016).

The findings conveyed by the ten interviewed officers collectively revealed the possible existence of a perceived relationship between shared racial and cultural identities and the de- escalation of incidences that reduces the likelihood of deadly use of force. Additionally, should a

Black officer decide to engage in use-of-force techniques, the majority of the participants consider the community's livelihoods, themselves, and even the individual committing crimes.

What is equally profound about this particular finding, as some participants noted, is that the decision to use lethal force is not an immediate action to remedy the conflict. Instead, it is a split- second notion to protect the community, the officer, and ultimately, the suspect from engaging in prohibited acts that put the lives of many at risk for the select few needing additional resources and services that may fall outside of the scope of what law enforcement can provide which begs the bigger clarifying question – what falls within the scope of policing, and what does not? This clarifier makes a monumental difference to alleviate continued misconceptions that community members have of police, vice-versa and opens the door to address ongoing problems of police violence towards Black citizens. Moreover, while only two participants did express involvement in an officer-involved shooting and their rationales for use-of-force selection(s), future research

92 encourages the exploration of increased recruitment efforts to obtain a perspective from prospective study participants to inform future policy implications.

When integrating the study’s findings into a thereotrical perspective using a critical race theory lens, all five tenets interweaved in the responses shared by the participants. However, the two most prominent tenets highlighted throughout the study involved the concepts that 1) racism is ordinary, and 2) the continuation of storytelling and counter-storytelling (Crenshaw et al.

1995; Delgado et al. 2012; Bridges 2019). More than half of the participants agreed that the history of policing carries undertones of slavery culture that generationally assigns stigmas to a particular aspect of Black culture that often gets misinterpreted as criminally deviant. Their attempts to change the narrative involve their choices to implement community policing strategies to get to know the community and find alternative ways to restore the trust and legitimacy of their presence. However, controversial instances of national police violence invoke deep-seated trauma that’s so ingrained into the Black community that the uniform and badge that was once a cloak of honor and pride morphed into a grim reaping endemic of Black citizens. As a result, Black police officers get shunned from the communities they are trying to uplift and, more importantly, call home. These same feelings of isolation and abandonment occur at the workplace, where double standards in treatment prevent promotions and experiential input to yield opportunities to revamp police culture that accounts for diversity and inclusion of thoughts and identities.

Cumulatively, all ten Black police participants within the current phenomenological study emphasized facets of the pre-existing literature regarding hardships faced in their initial interactions with police officers before becoming an officer when they served active duty within their corresponding communities. Ultimately, in predominantly Black neighborhoods,

93 participants sought opportunities to serve as catalysts of change to prevent Black youth and adults from encountering similarly situated experiences. Additionally, with six to thirty-four years of police experience, most participants did not encounter situations where deadly force de- escalated an incident. In few times where their guns engaged in a conflict, it activated as a last resort for self-defense, and suspects received wounds in nonlethal locations of the body where both officer and suspect managed to come out of the incident alive. Despite their involvement in actively working to change the culture of policing, conflicted feelings ranging from pride and dedication to frustration and powerlessness brought forth the perception that the current environment does not allow police-community relationships to foster and destroys reputable acts to restore police legitimacy because of the actions and inactions occurring among policing organizations across the United States. Having this additional insight begs the bigger question of why proposed legislation to address police reform failed to gain national momentum.

One reason that generously explains the delayed progression of legislative bills becoming federal law deals with the political timeline involved in crafting the bills. The majority of the bills took on a reactionary approach to address officer-involved occurrences after external pressure applied from activist groups and nonstop media coverage. When the media and activist groups stopped, somehow, the policy window to turn the bills into laws disappeared with it. A second reason for the bill's failed priority is the lack of bipartisanship among congress during its inception. With political division during the Obama and Trump presidential eras with a predominantly Democratic House of Representatives and predominantly Republican Senate, the bill failed to assuage Senate concerns regarding federal oversight of state and local law enforcement (Norwood 2021). In a vote of 220-212 as a House bill, the Justice in Policing Act

(H.R. 7120) only garnered one Republican vote. With 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats within

94 the Senate, at least 10 Republicans require convincing to advance this legislation for bill ratification (Norwood 2021; NPR 2021). With a lack of federal accountability and loose language allowing states to enforce police reform policies as they see fit rather than a uniform protocol in place, the burden is placed on federal and state law enforcement agencies to create and implement their protocols to determine whether the application of force to suspects was justified. As a result, the police rely on their training, state government guidelines, and personal survival without clear guidance.

Law & Policy Literature Analysis

In Chapter 2, several proposed legislative bills highlighted the federal government’s attempt to address the national problem of officer-involved shootings. Their purpose involved de-escalated conflict between police-community demographics on a larger scale, given the stalemate among state stakeholders to prioritize policy efforts in this area. The legislative components described the need for police reform regarding diversity in policing, accountability, transparency, police training, independent review, and qualified immunity. Upon examining the findings juxtaposed to the proposed legislation of the 116th and 117th Congress, the researcher located alignment and consensus where participants verified aspects of the proposed bills are strongly needed and desired to ensure efficiency and safety for all involved. Participants expressed accountability as fundamentally necessary due to some police officers, particularly

White officers, receiving different or seemingly preferential treatment when it comes to progressive discipline received from department superiors up to Internal Affairs. Simultaneously,

Black police officers experienced disciplinary action more punitively, which plays a negative role in the departmental retention percentages. In terms of transparency, the participants found the concept highly beneficial because it diffuses escalated emotions and concerns perceived by

95 the public about how police officers enforce laws in the community. Multiple participants noted that law enforcement agencies could release information to the public about the actions taken to de-escalate an ongoing investigation before it makes media headlines or, at minimum, control the narrative before speculation intervenes. However, there is a caution against it out of fear of judgment, a misconception of facts, and, unfortunately, accountability.

By far from the participants, training received unanimous consensus as a significant area of opportunity for policing to improve. One participant emphasized that it is infrequent to find all departments assigned to the same training courses synchronously due to various policing agencies in both county and state. Two participants noted that they facilitated the training of police cadets, but as they moved up in rank, they were not required to undergo continuous training modules. One participant described receiving mandatory training when they first began the position, but after the training concluded, they were on their own to maintain their vocational livelihoods. Another two participants noted that training throughout the year required mandatory attendance because accreditation of the department was at stake. With sporadic preparation of police officers entering the workforce without the necessary skills equipped, it forces them to operate off of survival rather than expertise, increasing the likelihood of officer-involved incidences. Therefore, if enacted urgently and implemented uniformly on a national scale, the proposed legislative bills show promise by opening the door of opportunity to unlearn ineffective concepts and re-educate law enforcement on holistic practices to rebuild rapport and community trust, especially in communities of color.

Limitations

Since the study’s origination, the researcher anticipated numerous limitations to manifest throughout until its conclusion. However, quite a few unexpected twists and turns worth

96 mentioning required urgent pivots to reach saturation successfully. The first limitation involved the political changing of the guards in the city of Boston. Initially, established contact with the former Boston Police Commissioner supported outreach to interview prospective participants for the study. However, with the former commissioner’s departure, new attempts to connect with the interim commissioner were interrupted by a scandal that resulted in an indefinite administrative leave. In a third attempt to connect with the Boston Police Commissioner’s office through electronic and phone correspondence, a lack of urgent response led to a significant delay in obtaining the maximum number of participants as planned. While the researcher could not account for the political changes in state government, having additional points of contact as an added layer of contingency planning proved to be incredibly beneficial.

The second limitation devolving from the study is the lack of time. Recruitment, data collection, and data analysis of all ten participants required an accelerated timeline to verify the eligibility of participants, confirming interview schedules that mutually benefitted the availability of both participant and researcher, and countless dedicated hours to transcribe each interview for coding purposes on multiple software platforms. Additional considerations entail the increased diversity of the participant population with the inclusion of Black female police officers, given that only one represented out of the ten interviewed. By having a balanced participation sample of Black men and Black women, doubled participation strengthens the study’s legitimacy and further amplifies concerns brought forth by the participants if additional time permitted.

The third limitation deals with the line of questioning provided to each participant. Some of the participants were unfamiliar with certain policy concepts described in the questions and often requested different clarifiers to ensure sufficient answers. Additionally, given that the

97 classification of participants fell into active duty or retired categories, the length of questions significantly reduced as the retired participants could not speak on some issues that transpired after their departure dates. For active-duty participants, some of the interviews virtually occurred while they were on-site at their departments and tasked with competing obligations. Reducing the questions from twenty-one to ten for both sets of participants could have made the semi- structured interview process run much smoother.

The fourth limitation is the quality of the snowball sample itself. While most participants identified as Black community members, one participant racially identified differently as Latino.

Despite the historical context of an intersectional relationship between the AfroLatin diaspora where one can be Black and Hispanic simultaneously, as multiple participants expressed, this one particular participant did not clarify the existence of such a relationship for the researcher to infer otherwise. Research in this area should consider creating subsequent lines of questioning for intersectional identifying participants to clarify their relationship with the Black diaspora to avoid authenticity loss for future studies, along with subsectional questions to dig deeper into situational circumstances where officer-involved shootings are warranted and when they are prohibited. Additionally, given that only one Black female police officer participated in the study, future research must explore alternative recruitment strategies to encourage Black female officer participation to offer a balanced perspective in Black police officer experience in Black neighborhoods.

Along the same lines of snowball quality, the fifth limitation involves the few numbers of

Black police participants carrying the experience necessary to speak to the experience of being a part of officer-involved incidences where lethal force was exercised, nor the set of circumstances that prompts a fatality to occur. Of the ten interviewed Black police officers, only two recalled

98 specific instances within their career where they used lethal force to de-escalate an incident. This finding opens the path to conclude that Black police officers who share, or perceive, share the same racial and cultural identities are less likely to use lethal force towards Black citizens.

However, the strength of this finding is inclusive without having a more robust sample analyzed to make that determination. Although the data conveyed their perceptions of shared racial and cultural affinity as motivating factors for using lethal force as a last resort, future research offers the opportunity to dig deeper into those insights further with a larger data collection sample and revised research inquiry to determine the extent of this relationship to highlight future policy implications towards the policing field.

The sixth limitation uncovered was unconscious affinity bias. Although the researcher did not communicate her racial identity to the participants at any point in the recorded semi- structured interviews and bracketed views to maintain the authenticity of the phenomenological study since its inception, the majority of the participants felt comfortable expressing their full thoughts on the research matter due to the perceived intersectional identities shared within the researcher/participant relationship. Despite this factor noted as a limitation, future researchers sharing racial and cultural identities situated to participants may have a more effortless experience within their data collection process that carries a practical skillset needed for interviewing purposes. If replicated by another researcher for future academic investigation, the limitation highlighted here must be strongly considered as participants expressed levels of vulnerability that were echoed as sensitive content not commonly discussed out of fear of future retaliation in the workplace and amongst their community peers. The final limitation involved technological difficulties presented by both the researcher and participants. A few participants experienced challenges with the Zoom link created by the researcher, which required

99 troubleshooting the software application and conducting walkthroughs to ensure digital arrival to the virtual interview room. After transcribing the data through OTTER.AI and transferring content to NVivo, the NVivo software crashed continuously, resulting in data loss. If replicated, future researchers must seek alternative applications that better support studies of this caliber.

From a methodological perspective, replication of this study requires future researchers to assess the effectiveness of policing and its initiatives towards communities of color, cognition of the community’s cultural mores and values, and their stakeholders. Additional follow-up strongly recommends acquainting themselves with local police, engage the community to assess it is a longstanding history with crisis response received from law enforcement, and engage the responding law enforcement agencies to verify or call attention to the perceptions or misconceptions about their presence and recommend future discourse opportunities to address it urgently. In terms of future interviews of prospective participants, the researcher must ensure the sampling of officers reaches the saturation representative of the population observed and includes an even ratio of male-to-female participants to gain a balanced perspective on the subject matter. Alternatively, this study lends itself a follow-up opportunity to engage in dialogue with non-Black police officers as this national concern requires three sides – Black police officers, White police officers, and the truth.

Recommendations

Based on the phenomenological study findings, pre-existing literature, the monumental conviction of former Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd

(McFadden 2021), and the recent officer-involved incident involving 16-year-old Ma’Khia

Bryant (NBC4 Columbus 2021), it is clear that despite historical precedent established towards advancing police accountability nationwide, there remains unfinished business to reform police-

100 community relationships. While the outcries from detrimentally impacted Black Americans and police agencies amplify at different volumes to various audiences, multiple participants from the study noted a similarity where both populations emphasized exact needs: strong reassurance of safety and security in their environments and bringing restorative and transformational value to the places both distinctively call home. However, there is a brooding disagreement between the two populations on achieving this overarching goal of safety. From a law and policy perspective, it is here where government must proactively intervene until the two populations reach a consensus that regardless of racial identity, ethics must prevail in how one holds the other accountable. Therefore, the purpose of this final section is to propose practical recommendations to resolve the challenges presented in the 21st century policing and officer-involved shooting reduction.

Recommendation #1: Congressional Bipartisanship to pass H.R. 7120 (Justice in Policing

Act)

As noted in Chapter 2, several opportunities to advance police reform legislation failed to pass in the Senate during both Obama and Trump Administration eras due to a lack of bipartisan agreeance. At present, H.R. 7120 nationally prohibits chokeholds, no-knock warrants, racial profiling and creates a national database for police misconduct (117th Congress 2021). Concerns involving H.R. 7120 brought forth by Republican Senators involves the strict prohibition of qualified immunity. When appropriately used, the application of qualified immunity supports law enforcement's ability to make judgment calls for citizens' betterment during an active threat or imminent danger to the community without repercussions. For the sole achievement of bipartisan stakeholders, qualified immunity must remain active. However, the degree to which it

101 applies will be the sticking point of compromise to sway votes in favor of timely bill ratification using the momentum of the Chauvin verdict as an active catalyst for motivational justice.

Recommendation #2: Mandated Professional Liability Insurance for Law Enforcement

Officers

If qualified immunity remains active for the foreseeable future, accountability measures to address police misconduct are required to prevent abuse of this legal privilege. In most cases, when an officer is involved in a fatal officer-involved shooting and the responding officer is found liable for excessive use of force, the impacted parties and their families file civil suits where large settlements derive from taxpayers rather than the individual officer and department responsible for it (Ramirez et al. 2019; NPR 2020). Mandated Professional Liability Insurance helps to create financial sanctions that “reflect the risk of unjustified violence” and “incentivizes departments and individual officers to adopt policies, training, and procedures that lower risk

(Ramirez et al. 2019).” Therefore, such a system develops early warning signs to determine whether the hired official is a risk not only to the community but also to police departments’ reputation and overall legitimacy.

Recommendation #3: Development of a Nationally Uniformed Cultural Competency

Training Curricular Model that promotes Evidence-Based Learning

Law enforcement agencies are in dire need of revamped training that supports the ability to de-escalate confrontations in Black neighborhoods without resorting to lethal use-of-force tactics. As some of the participants noted in their interview responses, the perception of Black

Americans from media outlets portrays community members as inferior, noncompliant, and socioeconomically challenged. False portrayals also hold towards White police counterparts getting misjudged by Black community members. For that narrative to immediately change,

102 educative experience in cultural competency offers mitigation falsehoods while building rapport with community members. With approaches to police preparation occurring randomly across jurisdictional lines, having a streamlined educative process to help police officers refine and sharpen their modes of conflict de-escalation consistently throughout their entire career regardless of rank. Training must mandatorily occur at least twice per month, and departmental superiors and Internal Affairs should create checkpoints to gauge progression and reception of content. If an officer fails to complete the training by the national deadline, the officer either drops a rank or is benched from responding on-scene to dispatched calls until they complete the curriculum.

Recommendation #4: Mandatory Participation in Use-of-Force Data Transparency

Reporting

A significant source of heavy contention between police-community interactions and political parties deals with the perceptions and misconceptions of controversial use-of-force incidents and the discrepancies for which they disproportionately apply. Policymakers rely on census data and other quantitative metrics to measure the severity of rising concerns or the effectiveness of policies upon implementation. However, the empirical literature towards officer- involved incidences severely lacked use-of-force data to evaluate the claims shared from both sides of the argument. In 2019, the FBI launched a National Use-of-Force database but failed to release the information to the public because they only acquired 41% of agency reports and refused to share the data until the participation rate reached over 80% accuracy (FBI 2019). It is important to note that participation at the time of the agency reporting was optional but not mandatory. If mandated, the participation level increases to warrant original data release for

103 policymakers to evaluate trends and recommend future policy implications based on factual content.

Recommendation #5: National Accreditation Model for Law Enforcement Agencies

Having accreditation builds a reputation in administrative and managerial operations that commands notoriety and respect for the achievement of professionally ethical standards of business. To acquire accreditation, law enforcement agencies must frequently participate in independent audits of their personnel, training, and crisis response management to communities serviced. Upon completing the audit, police department accreditation would become publicized in the local, state, and federal communities as an added benefit of earning community trust. Like other industries in corporate America, those failing to meet the standard must shut down for up to 1 week to implement the recommendations to correct infractions that pose an immediate danger to hired officers and citizens. Community members in need of urgent assistance will have calls rerouted to the next locally accredited police precinct to address their needs.

Recommendation #6: Development of Independent Review Boards to Audit Recruitment &

Retention Rates of Diverse Police Officer Populations

As highlighted in Chapter 4 findings, participants noted a stark decline in retention. Due to the lack of opportunity advancement in rank by predominantly White counterparts and the negative connotation of wearing the uniform, Black police officers are losing interest in maintaining long careers in policing. To address “pet to threat” rhetoric (Thomas 2013; Stallings

2020), the development of independent review boards specifically oriented to recruitment and retention rates of Black police officers offers a neutral outlet to understand their concerns better, amplify and advocate as a confidential intermediatory party to generate action plans for departmental heads to address immediately. As Black officers depart the agency, getting at the

104 root of departure better informs evidence-based learning strategies to address cultural competency for problematic behaviors in the workplace. With reduced racial tensions, the audit process supports a renewed commitment towards diversity that community members could appreciate, which draws increased interest in the position of Black youth.

Recommendation #7: National Redefinition of Law Enforcement Job Description and

Expectations

The final recommendation entails a revisitation of local, state, and federal government’s expectations of police officers and whether that measures up to their job descriptions.

Participants highlighted frustration about the many roles they are required to fill outside the scope of their profession, from social workers to mental health clinicians. By clarifying the role, prospective recruits and communities have a better understanding of their responsibilities, and government stakeholders can make the necessary adjustments to support their growth and development to thrive in the role successfully without outlier interferences.

Future Policy Implications

Recommendations for future study implications encourage the ability to replicate the research from a mixed methodological approach to strengthening the researcher’s findings regarding the relationship between recruitment, hiring, and training of Black police officers and officer-involved shooting reduction once national use-of-force data releases for public consumption. Disaggregated data by demographics, location, and use-of-force technique deployed, may reveal the root of policing discrepancies and other law and policy reviews to determine the source and why. Bolstered prioritization from government stakeholders requires numerical data to drive urgency in policy, especially as the federal government indicts officers found in violation of excessive use-of-force. Continued momentum and leverage to support

105 police-community relationships’ safety and overall longevity are fundamentally sound to restore faith in organizational efficiency in effective policing without triggering fight or flight responses from marginalized community members.

This nation must get a handle on addressing police legitimacy and racial justice concerns.

Black Americans cannot go to school, church, home, sleep, drive, run, shop, eat, play video games, or ask about their reasons for being detained without being an increased risk of getting shot or asphyxiated by police for crimes they did not commit or at minimum a chance at legal defense (see Appendix A). Equally daunting is any genuine incentive to become and remain a police officer because of an increased negative connotation and stigmatization of the uniform.

When individuals are scared to embrace their racial identity and afraid of protecting the law, the fabric of American culture is scorched, band-aid relief is insufficient, and bruised generational voices, both alive and deceased, continue to scream for justice against the blue wall of silence.

The application of academic activism serves as the hammer to create a door to engage in a very much-needed discourse.

106

Table 1: Data Collection and Management Plan

Title of Study: Black America Bruised in Black & Blue: Diversification of Officers in Law Enforcement (D.O.L.E.) and Officer-Involved Shooting Reduction Names: Angelica Jordan (Doctoral Researcher); Dr. Ali Raisi (Principal Investigator) and Dr. Theodore R. Johnson (Second Reader) Methodology: Qualitative Approach – Semi-structured Interview – Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) Ethical and Legal Considerations for Managing File Naming Protocols Technology Resources Needed Organization, Storage and Management of Data Your Data (both hard and soft copies) • Consent - All participants scheduled for • A Master Folder will be titled in the • Laptop (Apple MacBook • The organization of interviews compiled on personal interviews with the researcher must sign following format: “[Name]_[Title of Pro 13” 2018) with iCloud laptop will be security-encrypted to prevent an informed consent form (physically Thesis Study]_[Date of Proposed capabilities compromisation of data by unauthorized parties. and/or electronically) to notify them of Defense]” and password protected. the researcher's background, purpose, length of time involved, handling of data, • The Master Folder consists of two • Personal Cellphone (iPhone • Each interview has its own unique confidential file name participant commitment, and risks of subfolders titled “[Interviews]” and 12 Pro) to account for scheduled meetings with all participants taking part in the research with the “[Data Analysis].” for the duration of the study. ability to retract at any time. • Microsoft Word • All data will be saved on alternative formats (password- • Confidentiality- To protect each human • Both “[Interviews]” and “[Data protected external hard drive and stored in a Cloud- subject's identity and maintain the Analysis]” folders are password- • Adobe Acrobat Software based system) at locations only beknown and accessible integrity of the research due to the protected and accessed only by the to the researcher to minimize data security risks. current police-community climate, all researcher. • Audio Voice Changer names of interviewees remain Application (Voice • All encrypted data will be organized in a systematic anonymous for public audience Distortion) fashion to be provided to Northeastern University consumption through an alias generator. • Each participant’s interview in the Internal Review Board (IRB) upon request in the event Each participant receives a code name, “[Interviews]” folder has the following of an emergency for up to 7 years. randomized number, and can opt-in to format: “[Date of • Zoom with audio voice distortion should there be an Interview]_[Participant Alias Name]_[# recording/transcribing inherent fear of information disclosure. of Interview(s)]_[CONFIDENTIAL].” capabilities.

• Social/Psychological/Financial Harms- • Each participant’s interview after Participants may experience trauma- transcription through NVivo 12 • NVivo 12 Software for induced responses where feelings of software will be saved in the “[Data Coding purposes. discomfort in responding to series of Analysis]” folder under the following questions or fear retaliation from format: “[Date of information disclosure. IRB Protections Interview]_[Abbreviated Participant • USB-C External Hard Drive are in place to stop the interview, ask the Alias Name]_[Date of Transcription].” participant whether they wish to continue, and additional follow-up post- • All information contained in the Master interview to confirm consent of Folder is saved on the password- responses provided. protected laptop, Apple iCloud Service, and on a security-encrypted USB-C External Hard Drive as a backup in the • Data Protections – All participant event of data loss. interviews are security-encrypted with dual-authentication and undergoes • The External Hard Drive will be additional encryption through the security-encrypted, and its location only researcher’s device (Apple’s iCloud known to the researcher. Application).

107

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APPENDIX A

CHRONOLOGY OF POLICE VIOLENCE IN THE UNITED STATES (1991-2021) Victims of Police Force Used Use-of-Force Source Violence Continuum Rodney King Physical Force Empty-Hand Sastry, A. & Bates, K. G. (2017). When LA (1991) Control Erupted In Anger: A Look Back At The Rodney King Riots. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2017/04/26/524744989/wh en-la-erupted-in-anger-a-look-back-at-the- rodney-king-riots

Amadou Diallo 40 Gunshot Lethal Force Fritsch, J. (2000, Feb). The Diallo Verdict: The (1999) wounds Overview; 4 Officers in Diallo Shooting are Acquitted of all Charges. The New York Times, pp. B4-B6

Sean Bell (2006) 50 Gunshot Lethal Force Baker, A., & Flegenheimer, M. (2012). “Officer wounds in Bell Killing is Fired; 3 Others to be Forced Out.” Retrieved from The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/24/nyregion/ in-sean-bell-killing-4-officers-to-be-forced- out.html?_r=0

Michael Brown Gunshot Lethal Force U.S. Department of Justice (2015). (2014) wound Memorandum: Department of Justice Report Regarding the Criminal Investigation into the shooting death of Michael Brown by Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson. Pgs. 1- 86.

Eric Garner Chokehold Lethal Force A.B.C. News (2014). "Father of Six Dies After (2014) N.Y.P.D. Police Chokehold." Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s8JklrBSl k

Tamir Rice Gunshot Lethal Force Fortin, J. & Bromwich, J. E. (2017). “Cleveland (2014) wound Police Officer Who Shot Tamir Rice Is Fired.” Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/30/us/clevel and-police-tamir-rice.html

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Laquan Gunshot Lethal Force The Guardian (2015). Chicago dashcam video McDonald wound shows the police killing of Laquan McDonald. (2014) Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/us- news/video/2015/nov/24/chicago-officials- release-video-showing-police-killing-of-laquan- mcdonald-video

Freddie Gray Tactical Hold Lethal Force BBC (2016). Freddie Gray’s death in police (2015) custody – what we know. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada- 32400497

Walter Scott Gunshot Lethal Force CNN (2015). "Dashcam shows moments before (2015) wound shooting of Walter Scott." Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYaYdaFF LoQ

Sandra Bland Asphyxiation Lethal Force Wall Street Journal (2015). “Sandra Bland (2015) Arrest Footage.” Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9t1N2wR vjc

Alton Sterling Gunshot Lethal Force C.B.S. News (2018). "Alton Sterling shooting: (2016) wound Baton Rouge police release bodycam footage." Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4V6nm0- DIE Philando Castile Gunshot Lethal Force YouTube (2017). “Dashcam video of Philando (2016) wound Castile shooting.” Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vd7zW4aR lYE

Stephon Clark Cardiac Arrest Lethal Force Del Real, J. A. (2018). Stephon Clark’s Official (2018) Autopsy Conflicts with Earlier Findings. New York Times. Retrieved from ProQuest on March 19th, 2020, from https://search- proquest.com.ezproxy.neu.edu/docview/203310 3411/abstract/5B2F1152CF3E43DCPQ/1?acco untid=12826

130

Botham Jean Gunshot Lethal Force McLaughlin, E. C., & Almasy, S. (2019). (2018) wound Amber Guyger gets a 10-year murder sentence for fatally shooting Botham Jean. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/02/us/amber- guyger-trial-sentencing/index.html

Ronald Greene Chokehold/As Empty Hand- Mustian, J. (2021). AP: Top cop in Black man’s (2019) pyxiation Control/Less deadly arrest withheld cam video. Associated Lethal Press. Retrieved from https://apnews.com/article/arrests-death-of- ronald-greene- d2868b81b5af53a62301742d1ba4b825

Atatiana Gunshot Lethal Force Alonso, M. & Maxouris, C. (2019). Former Fort Jefferson (2019) wound Worth officer indicted in Atatiana Jefferson’s shooting death. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/20/us/atatiana- jefferson-death-officer-indicted/index.html Elijah McClain Chokehold Lethal Force Tompkins, L. (2020). Who was Elijah (2019) McClain? The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/article/who- was-elijah-mcclain.html

Daniel Prude Asphyxiation Less Associated Press (2020). Rochester Mayor fires (2020) by Spit Mask Lethal/Lethal police chief in upheaval over suffocation death Force of Daniel Prude. Retrieved from https://ktla.com/news/nationworld/rochester- mayor-fires-police-chief-in-upheaval-over- suffocation-death-of-daniel-prude/

Breonna Taylor Gunshot Lethal Force Wood, J. (2020). Breonna Taylor killing: Call (2020) wounds for Justice intensifies after months of frustration. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/us- news/2020/jul/26/breonna-taylor-killing-justice- louisville-kentucky George Floyd Chokehold by Lethal Force The New York Times (2020). George Floyd (2020) Knee Updates: Former Minneapolis Officer is Charged with Murder. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/29/us/minne apolis-protests-george-floyd-death.html

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Rayshard Gunshot Lethal Force Wessman, P., and Holcombe, M. (2020). Ex- Brooks (2020) wound officer who fatally shot Rayshard Brooks shot a suspect three times in 2015 and was concerned he’d face charges. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/26/us/rayshard- brooks-garrett-rolfe-2015-three- shots/index.html

Jacob Blake Gunshot Less Wolfrom, J. (2020). Jacob Blake, whose (2020) Wound Lethal/Lethal shooting sparked protests in Kenosha, speaks Force from hospital bed in emotional video. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/0 9/05/jacob-blake-whose-shooting-led-violence- kenosha-appeals-calm-his-hospital-bed/ Walter Wallace Gunshot Lethal Force Levenson, E., Del Valle, L., Holcombe, M. Jr. (2020) Wound (2020). Walter Wallace Jr.’s family does not want officers who shot him to face murder charges. CNN. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/29/us/phildelphia -shooting-wallace-release/index.html

Caron Nazario Physical Force Empty Hand- Schwartz, M. S., & Bowman, E. (2021). (2020) and Chemical Control; Less Virginia Attorney General Investigating Pepper Spray Lethal/Lethal Windsor Police Department. NPR. Retrieved Force from https://www.npr.org/2021/04/11/986271819/off icer-who-handcuffed-and-pepper-sprayed- black-army-lieutenant-is-fired

Casey Goodson Gunshot Lethal Force King, D. (2020). Questions surround death of Jr. (2020) Wound Casey Goodson, Black man shot by veteran SWAT officer. The Columbus Dispatch. Retrieved from https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/2020/12/ 06/questions-surround-officer-involved- shooting/3848121001/ Marvin David Chemical Less Silverman, H., & Hackney, D. (2021). Seven Scott III (2021) Spray & Spit Lethal/Lethal detention officers fired, one resigns in custody Mask Force death in a Texas jail. CNN. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/02/us/texas- detention-officers-fired-after-in-custody- death/index.html

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Daunte Wright Gunshot Lethal Force BBC (2021). Daunte Wright shooting by police (2021) Wound ‘accidental.’ Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada- 56724798

Ma’Khia Bryant Gunshot Lethal Force NBC4 Columbus (2021). Columbus Police (2021) Wound show body cam footage of officer shooting, killing teen girl. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3rAhT2lm 8A

Andrew Brown Gunshot Lethal Force Hassan, A. (2021). What We Know About the Jr. (2021) Wound Killing of Andrew Brown Jr. in North Carolina. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/28/us/andre w-brown-jr-shooting-north-carolina.html

Dartavius False Arrest; Officer Salcedo, A. (2021). Police told a man a Barnes (2021) Destruction of Presence; container tested positive for drugs. It was his Property Empty Hand- daughter’s ashes. The Washington Post. Control Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/0

5/21/dartavius-barnes-daughters-ashes-mixup/ Winston Smith Gunshot Lethal Force WCCO-TV Staff (2021). On Third Night Of (2021) Wound Protests, Winston Smith’s Brother Asks For Any Video Released, Witnesses To Come Forward. CBS Minnesota. Retrieved from https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2021/06/06/on- third-night-of-protests-winston-smiths-brother- asks-for-any-video-released-witnesses-to-come- forward/

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APPENDIX B

USE OF FORCE CONTINUUM1 Type of Force Definition Examples Officer Presence No force is used. Presence of police officer in a professional and nonthreatening way deters crime or diffusing potential conflicts. Verbalization Non-physical force in the form Calm, nonthreatening of verbal communication is commands are used to gain used. compliance such as “Stop” or “Don’t Move.” Empty-Hand Control Use of bodily force to gain Two types of bodily force used: control of a situation. soft and hard. Soft techniques involve grabbing, holding, and joint locks to restrain. Hard techniques require punching and kicking to restrain. Less Lethal The use of techniques that focus There are three types of on temporary incapacitation to technologies available: gain control and maintain Blunt impact: Baton or compliance. Projectiles to immobilize. Chemical: Pepper spray or tear gas. Conducted Energy Devices: Taser usage on an individual identified as combative. Lethal Force The use of a weapon to diffuse a Deadly Use of Force using a threat deemed harmful to the Firearm. responding officer or another individual. Specifically, lethal force is used as the final alternative if the abovementioned force types are deemed as inapplicable or unsuccessful in achieving compliance.

1 Source: National Institute of Justice (2009). The Use-of-Force Continuum. Retrieved from https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/use-force- continuum

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APPENDIX C

BUREAU OF JUSTICE STATISTICS (2016): LAW ENFORCEMENT MANAGEMENT AND STATISTICS SURVEY

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APPENDIX D: RECRUITMENT COMMUNICATIONS

Subject Line: Northeastern University Research Opportunity: Meeting Request

[Insert Greeting]

My name is Angelica Jordan, and I am a doctoral student at Northeastern University in the Doctor of Law and Policy (D.L.P.) program with the College of Professional Studies. The D.L.P. program is a 2-year program designed for professionals with extensive experience in a field related to their research area. I have completed my coursework and will start to focus on my study in the Diversification of Officers in Law Enforcement and Officer- involved shooting reduction. Professionally, I serve as a Residence Director at Northeastern University’s Department of Residential Life here at the Boston Campus site, a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Fellow (2016) at the Dr. John D. O’Bryant Institute at Northeastern University, and longtime alumni of Northeastern with the most recent as a 2018 graduate of Northeastern University School of Law’s Master of Legal Studies Program.

I was hoping to connect with a point of contact at your site to obtain approval to initiate communications for recruiting participants towards the study (see flyer attached). Specifically, participants needed for the study involve 10-16 Black police officers seeking to improve the impact of racial diversity in police-community relationships.

If participants decide to take part in this study, they will be asked to participate in one 60-minute interview virtually by Zoom, or by telephone at your choice of location and a time that is convenient for them. Interviews will be audio recorded and upon completion. Once the interviews are transcribed, research participants will be asked to review the transcripts (which should take approximately 10-15 minutes) to ensure accuracy. Participation is entirely voluntary and confidential. Please contact Angelica Jordan by phone at (347) 238-0260 or email ([email protected]) for more information if you would like to volunteer to participate. Or, if you know of someone that might be interested in participating and fits the criteria above, please feel free to forward this email to them. Participation is entirely voluntary. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Respectfully Yours, Angelica Jordan M.S., M.L.S Doctoral Candidate for Law & Policy (2021), College of Professional Studies, Northeastern University

Police Diversity In Black & Blue: 136

Are you a Black police officer looking to influence change in your community?

Study for Black Police Officers in Law Enforcement Location

Currently seeking Black police officers with at least two years of work All interviews will be experience to participate in a 60-minute interview for a research study virtually conducted in exploring the relationship between police diversity and Boston, MA.

officer-involved shooting reduction (IRB#CPS20-10-09). Eligibility • 18-60 years of age Participants will be asked to participate in: • At least two years of • 1 Recorded 60-minute Zoom interview service as a Police • Answer questions regarding your experience as a Police Officer Officer • Lives in Boston Participating in the study: • Has Access to Zoom by Phone or • Helps understand the impact of Racial Diversity Computer. • Influences ways to repair police-community relationships • Supports future policy implications to re-legitimize policing

(347) 238 edu Jordan.ang@northeastern. Angelica Jordan (347) 238 edu Jordan.ang@northeastern. Angelica Jordan (347) 238 edu Jordan.ang@northeastern. Angelica Jordan (347) 238 edu Jordan.ang@northeastern. Angelica Jordan (347) 238 edu Jordan.ang@northeastern. Angelica Jordan (347) 238 edu Jordan.ang@northeastern. Angelica Jordan (347) 238 edu Jordan.ang@northeast Angelica Jordan (347) 238 edu Jordan.ang@northeastern. Angelica Jordan (347) 238 edu Jordan.ang@northeastern. Angelica Jordan (347) 238 edu Jordan.ang@northeastern. Angelica Jordan

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0260 0260 0260 0260 0260 0260 0260 0260 0260 0260

ern.

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Letter to Recruit Perspective Participant

[Insert Greeting] Participant,

My name is Angelica Jordan, and I am a doctoral student at Northeastern University in the Doctor of Law and Policy (D.L.P.) program with the College of Professional Studies. I kindly request your participation in a doctoral research study titled Black America Bruised in Black & Blue: Diversification of Law Enforcement and Officer-Involved Shooting Reduction. The intention is to explore the relationship between officers' diversification in law enforcement and officer-involved shooting reduction through structured interviews.

The study involves participating in a 30-minute interview where you will be asked a series of questions regarding your experience in the law enforcement role. Participation is entirely voluntary, with the ability to withdraw at any time, anonymous, and does not require you to provide your name or any identifying information if you do not wish to.

If you are interested in participating in this study, please read the Informed Consent letter, sign, and submit your availability to [email protected]. Your participation in the research will help understand the impact of racial diversity in policing, prioritizing police- community relationship repair, and future policy implications to re-legitimize policing.

Thank you for your time and participation.

Respectfully, Angelica Jordan, M.S./M.L.S Doctoral Student Researcher

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Transcript of Interview

[Insert Greeting] Participant [Insert Alias],

How are you doing today?

Thank you for agreeing to participate in this interview. Before we begin, I’d like to go over the structure of our conversation. This interview will be approximately 30-60 minutes in length, where you are asked a series of 21 open-ended questions. You may respond to the questions in the order received and preferred. Please note that I am listening to all content relayed, and you may notice at different points of conversation where notes are written. This is not intended to distract – please continue the dialogue. If you need me to repeat the questions at any point in time, please feel free to ask. Please note that this conversation is recorded for study purposes. Before participation, you’ve read and signed a consent form permitting the use of the discussion shared today. However, if you wish to no longer participate in the study, please notify me at your earliest convenience, and I will stop the recording immediately and discontinue use. Do you have any questions regarding this process, and are you ready to proceed?

(If participant says “No,” the participant is thanked for coming and the call concludes. If the participant says “Yes,” the interview will move forward.)

1. What is your current rank as a police officer, and how many years have you served on the force? 2. What factors influenced your decision to become a police officer? 3. How do you identify or see yourself in the police department? 4. How do you identify with and connect with the role as a police officer? 5. What do you think about police officer relationships within the community? 6. What do you think about the role of police and enforcement in communities of color? 7. Describe your experience policing the community. Does anything about policing in a Black community stand out? 8. Have you been in circumstances where how you identify may have helped de-escalate an incident? o Where do you think your training came in during this process? 9. Do you think you have different experiences when you’re on-duty versus being off-duty? 10. What training(s) have you participated in that encourages cultural competency in your role as a police officer, and how frequently did they occur? 11. What is your perception of the workplace climate when it comes to diversity in the police department? 12. How are police officers held accountable and do you have any examples where accountability has played out in your department? 13. How has cultural identity played into accountability? 14. Has Black Lives Matter impacted your work environment? 15. Have you witnessed any of your colleagues involved in officer-involved shootings? o How did you feel about that? 16. Do you think that officer’s race played a role in how the outcome of the incident turned out?

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17. Did you guys have any informal discussions about Breonna Taylor and George Floyd with colleagues, friends, etc.? How has this affected your daily job? Pick a side 18. Describe your relationship with non-Black police officers since the Black Lives Matter movement's resurgence in response to the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. 19. How long do you intend to remain in this role? o You mentioned ( ), why do you think that is? o What changes would you like to see that may influence reconsideration of your referenced response? 20. What advice would you share with youth interested in becoming a police officer? 21. Do you have any particular advice for Black youth in the Boston area?

Thank you for participating in this interview. If you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to reach out via e-mail ([email protected]).

Open-ended Questionnaire Follow-up

[Insert Greeting] Participant,

Thank you for participating in this study titled Black America Bruised in Black & Blue: Diversification of Law Enforcement (D.O.L.E.) and Officer-involved Shooting Reduction. I appreciate your candidness and vulnerability in answering questions that may have brought on feelings of discomfort. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between the diversification of officers in law enforcement and officer- involved shooting reduction through structured interviews of Black police officers at The Boston Police Department (BPD) in Boston, Massachusetts. At this stage in the research, the focus explores how Black police officers are recruited, hired, and trained into the workforce, how they navigate officer-involved incidents, and how, if at all, race influences the choices and decisions made when interacting in communities of color both on-and-off duty.

If you, as the participant, have additional commentary that you wish to share, please take 2-3 minutes to complete the open-ended questionnaire below:

1) How would you describe your experience participating in the 30-60 minute interview with the researcher?

[Space for Response(s)]

2) What additional information would you like to share that you didn’t have time to convey in our 30-60 minute interview together?

[Space for Response(s)]

Thank you for participating! If you have any additional questions or concerns, or would like a copy of the study after its conclusion, please reach out to [email protected].

140

Debriefing Statement

[Insert Greeting],

Thank you for participating in this study titled Black America Bruised in Black & Blue: Diversification of Law Enforcement (D.O.L.E.) and Officer-involved Shooting Reduction. I appreciate your candidness and vulnerability in answering questions that may have brought on feelings of discomfort. As a reminder, the purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between the diversification of officers in law enforcement and officer-involved shooting reduction through structured interviews of Black police officers in Boston, Massachusetts. At this stage in the research, the focus explores how Black police officers are recruited, hired, and trained into the workforce, how they navigate officer-involved incidents, and how, if at all, race influences the choices and decisions made when interacting in communities of color both on- and-off duty.

The data collected during interviews will contribute to a better understanding of workforce diversity in policing to inform legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government, along with academic scholars, the impact of racial diversity in policing, prioritizing police-community relationship repair, and propose future policy implications to re-legitimize policing.

This study has been reviewed and received ethics clearance through Northeastern University’s Internal Review Board (I.R.B.). If you have any questions for the Ethics committee, please contact (insert number). For all other inquiries, contact Angelica Jordan at [email protected] or (347) 238-0260 with a detailed voice message. Please remember that data will be kept confidential to preserve your privacy. Once collected and analyzed, research findings will be shared with the academic community and published on ProQuest.

If you are interested in receiving more information or a summary of the results, please provide your e-mail address, and upon completion, I’ll share a copy of the study. Until then, please do not hesitate to reach out at your earliest convenience should you have additional questions or concerns.

Respectfully, Angelica Jordan, M.S./M.L.S Doctoral Student Researcher

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APPENDIX E

Police Diversity Codebook of Interviewed Participants from 3.28.21-04.17.21 via NVivo12

Codes Description Files References

Communication 5 8 Community 7 23 Duty 9 21

Have and Have Nots 1 1

History 5 6

Perceptions 9 31

Us versus Them 4 5

Youth 7 9

Connections 3 7 Politics 6 8

Relationships 7 17

Resources 2 2

Diversity 8 18 Emotion 5 6 Animosity 2 2

Different 0 0

Frustrated 0 0

Hurt 0 0

Pressure 0 0

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Codes Description Files References

Trauma 3 10

Understand 0 0

Identity 4 8 Double-Consciousness 4 6

Officer-Involved Shootings 5 10 Power 5 9 Accountability 1 4

Economic 3 4

Internal Affairs 5 7

Accreditation 1 1

Audit 1 1

Progressive 6 8

Discipline

Media 3 6

Reputation 2 2

Stakeholder 5 7

Transparency 3 5

Uniform 7 8

Race 10 45 Anglo Saxon 1 1

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Codes Description Files References

Black 3 3

Hispanic 0 0

Multicultural 2 4

White 1 1

Time 1 1 Training 10 24 Academy 4 5

De-escalation 4 6

Diversity 1 1

Experience 1 2

Education 3 3

Experts 1 1

Supervision 0 0

Rank 10 10

Years on the Force 10 10

Holistic 1 1

Mandatory 2 4

Optional 1 2

Skills 2 2

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Codes Description Files References

Supervision 10 10