On Police Use of Deadly Force and the Southwest Phenomenon

Over the last few decades police use of force has come under more and more scrutiny. Because it is the police who we depend on for protection, it is unsettling that the police commit unlawful violent acts. This is especially true when it comes to police use of deadly force. This study summarizes the research on police use of deadly force and attempts to reproduce some of the key findings. State-level data on police killings and various implications of two major theories are tested using multiple regression analyses. So far, replication of the results of previous studies with new data has failed. Interestingly enough, however, my study discovered a strong, previously unrecognized pattern: that states in the Southwest have unusually high rates of police killings of civilians, holding constant violent crime rates and other factors. More research needs to be done in order to ultimately determine why this Southwest phenomenon occurs.