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In 2015, did Black Americans report being encountered by the police more often than white Americans?

Monday, June 22, 2020
By Claire Zimmerman
NO

In a 2015 survey, a Justice Department agency asked respondents about how often they had contact with police officers. It reported that 23% of white people surveyed had some form of contact, compared with 19.8% of Black respondents. Black drivers reported being pulled over in traffic stops at a higher rate than other groups.

No more recent data is available from the agency, but earlier studies looked at the use of force across the population. Between 2005 and 2011, 5.7% of whites in 2005-2011 had three or more experiences with the police that included a threat or use of force, while 11.7% of Blacks experienced the same. When examining non-threatening and non-forceful experiences with the police, the same report concluded that 11.3% of whites had three or more contacts with the police from 2002-2011, while 14.8% of Blacks had three or more contacts.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
US Bureau of Justice Statistics Contacts between police and the public in 2015
US Bureau of Justice Statistics Police use of non-fatal force 2002-2011
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