Will They Even Hear Me? How Race Influences Citizen Complaint Outcomes

Abstract

Scholarship has explored how representation influences policing services, but little is known as to what effect officer and citizen race influences outcomes related to police misconduct cases. This analysis of the Indianapolis and New Orleans police department applies representative bureaucracy theory to create expectations on how race impacts citizen complaint cases. The findings indicate that Black citizens are more likely to have their complaint sustained when filed against a White officer compared to a White citizen. Moreover, male citizens are less likely to have their complaint sustained compared to females.

Keywords:

• Public administration
• policing
• social equity

Notes

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Nicole Wright, Frances Berry and Danny Fay for providing meticulous feedback on earlier revisions of the paper. Additionally, we thank anonymous reviewers for the feedback they have provided on the paper.

Notes

1 According to the 2015 estimates by the U.S. Census, Marion County serves a population of approximately 939,000, with a median age of 34 years old. The racial/ethnic demographic breakdown is as follows: 59% of the populous is White alone, 27% is African American/Black alone, 10% is Hispanic or Latino, 2% is Asian alone, and 2% is multiracial. Within the county, the police department serves 6 districts (North, East, Northwest, Downtown, Southeast and Southwest).

2 See Table 2 in the Appendix for summary statistics.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

James E. Wright

James E. Wright II is an Assistant Professor in the Askew School of Public Administration at Florida State University. He can be reached at [email protected].