The science behind shootings

From staff reports

A WSU Spokane study on deadly force found that participants in a simulation took longer to fire a gun at black suspects than white or Hispanic suspects, even though they were more likely to feel threatened.

Participants took an average of 1.61 seconds to fire against black suspects, compared to 1.37 seconds for white and Hispanic suspects. That 240 millisecond difference is attributed to what Lois James, an assistant research professor at WSU Spokane, called “counter bias.”

There is evidence that officers may take more time when deciding to shoot if a suspect is subconsciously threatening due to their race, James and her co-authors wrote in their study published in the Journal of Experimental Criminology.

“This behavioral ‘counter-bias’ might be rooted in people’s concerns about the social and legal consequences of shooting a member of a historically oppressed racial or ethnic group,” James wrote in the study.

The study features a high-definition simulator in which participants decide whether or not to shoot a suspect based on their clothing, hand gestures, threatening stance and race.

During the simulation, the participants’ alpha brain waves were measured to track if and when the participant felt threatened.

Participants, 85 percent of whom were white, expressed greater threat responses when confronted with a black suspect than with a white or Hispanic suspect.

When making the decision to use deadly force, Chris Tennant, commander of the Pullman police, said he doesn’t consider race.

“There are lot more issues going into your subconscious when making your decisions,” he said. “Generally, you don’t have time to analyze what happens in a split-second.”

Civilian participants in the study were chosen randomly from the Spokane area. Law enforcement and military personnel were recruited from various local agencies.

Neither the participants nor the personnel conducting the study were aware that their findings would be analyzed based on racial and ethnic bias. This prevented participants from modifying their reactions to the simulations.

The sample is representative of the Spokane area, not the entire United States.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reported 410 justifiable homicides by law enforcement in 2012. While the FBI does collect racial data in its statistics, it does not provide the racial breakdown.  

This study does not prove if law enforcement officers are shooting more unarmed blacks than unarmed whites.

“While it’s unquestionable that law enforcement shoot ethnic minorities disproportionately to their populations, we really need better statistics and studies, like this one, to better understand the problem,” James explained.

James has conducted a similar study awaiting analysis with strictly law enforcement participants in order to explore this issue further.

“I was very pleased that somebody was actually studying this,” Tennant said. “Cops get a bad rap for doing a lot of things. Now, sociologists will be studying why this actually happens.”

The most recent study prior to WSU Spokane’s research on race in justifiable and unjustifiable shootings was published in 2001. Statistics show blacks are just as likely to shoot at law enforcement as they are to be shot at. The study used more than two decades of data from the U.S. Bureau of Justice.

James’ study can be found in the Journal of Criminology.

Reporting by Alysen Boston