Are police officers good or bad?

Nevertheless, many Americans believe that police officers are generally good, noble heroes. A Gallup poll from 2014 asked Americans to rate the honesty and ethical standards of people in various fields: police officers ranked in the top five, just above members of the clergy.

Can a police officer face criminal charges for killing a civilian?

A review of the data we have on police prosecutions shows that it’s uncommon for police officers to face any kind of legal consequences — let alone be convicted — for committing fatal violence against civilians. The data we have on police misconduct is, admittedly, far from perfect.

Can a police officer face criminal charges for using excessive force?

As we wrote earlier this summer, it’s actually quite rare for police officers to face criminal legal consequences for using excessive force — or even fatal violence — against civilians.

What percentage of police officers do the right thing?

A protest in Cleveland, Ohio, after police officer Michael Brelo was acquitted for the shooting deaths of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams. On any given day, in any police department in the nation, 15 percent of officers will do the right thing no matter what is happening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PWKSc_830g

Are police acting too aggressive during protests?

More than a third of Americans believe police have acted too aggressively during recent demonstrations, including half of African Americans, 43 percent of Latinos and 31 percent of white people.

How do you test for racial disparity in police use of deadly force?

“The most common means of testing for racial disparity in police use of deadly force is to compare the odds of being fatally shot for blacks to the odds of being fatally shot for whites.” That logic is flawed because it relies upon the false assumption that white and black people commit life-threatening crimes at the same rates.