The Impact of State Laws on Officer-Involved Deaths (OIDs)

Objective: to study issues related to the illegal use of force by law enforcement officers against detainees, as well as to identify the impact of state laws on the rate of officer-involved deaths.
Methods: the article uses the universal dialectical method of cognition, as well as general (analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction) and specific scientific research methods (formal-legal method).
Results: while the public debates whether law enforcement has a problem with mis- or over-using force, the field lacks critical information concerning how often officers use force when interacting with citizens. Moreover, researchers have not examined how differences in how states restrict officers' ability to use force affect the frequency of force used. Consequently, the various reforms proposed have little evidence supporting them. Using data from Mapping Police Violence combined with census data, the authors examined the impact of the incorporation of U.S. Supreme Court jurisprudence and the overall restrictiveness each state placed on law enforcement's ability to use force when making an arrest and what constituted reasonable force within each state. It was found that the state's population size and violent crime rate were strong predictors of the number and rate of officer-involved deaths.
Scientific novelty: The study showed that the incorporation of SCOTUS decisions within state laws, or the restrictiveness of state laws concerning how officers use force during an arrest, how officers use force to protect themselves or others, or the use of deadly force affect the number of officer-involved deaths that occur per year, nor the rate of officer-involved deaths per 100,000 residents per year. The bivariate analyses indicated that state laws concerning how officers use force may affect OIDs, but the inclusion of other relevant factors about the states in the multivariate analyses reduced those effects. Further, the state laws in question may not be the appropriate point to affect behavior. At this point, there has been comparatively less attention paid to state-level issues of what constitutes the reasonable suspicion necessary to begin an interaction through a Terry stop or issues where officers' behavior may have inadvertently escalated the situation to the point of using force.
Practical significance: the main provisions and conclusions of the article can be used in scientific, pedagogical and law enforcement activities when considering issues related to the impact of state laws on officer-involved deaths.

1. Alang, S., McAlpine, D., McCreedy, E., & Hardeman, R. (2017). Police brutality and Black health: Setting the agenda for public health scholars. American Journal of Public Health, 107(5), 662–665. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2017.303691

2. Alpert, G. P., & Dunham, R. G. (2010). Policy and training recommendations related to police use of CEDs: Overview of findings from a comprehensive national study. Police Quarterly, 13(3), 235–259. https://doi.org/10.1177/1098611110373993

3. Anderson, E. (2000). Code of the street: Decency, violence, and the moral life of the inner city. WW Norton & Company.

4. Archbold, C. A. (2021). Police accountability in the USA: Gaining traction or spinning wheels? Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 15(3), 1665–1683. https://doi.org/10.1093/police/paab033

5. Ariel, B., Farrar, W., & Sutherland, A. (2015). The effect of police body-worn cameras on use of force and citizens' complaints against the police: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 31(3), 509–535. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2569481

6. Armacost, B. E. (2003). Organizational culture and police misconduct. George Washington Law Review, 72(3), 453–546. https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.412620

7. Averdijk, M., & Elffers, H. (2012). The discrepancy between survey-based victim accounts and police reports revisited. International Review of Victimology, 18(2), 91–107. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269758011432955

8. Bailey, J. A., Jacoby, S. F., Hall, E. C., Khatri, U., Whitehorn, G., & Kaufman, E. J. (2022). Compounding trauma: The intersections of racism, law enforcement, and injury. Current Trauma Reports, 8(3), 105–112. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40719-022-00231-7

9. Banks, D., Ruddle, P., Kennedy, E., & Planty, M. G. (2016). Arrest-related deaths program redesign study, 2015-16: Preliminary findings. Bureau of Justice Statistics. https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/ardprs1516pf.pdf

10. Bedi, S. (2022). The myths of effective law enforcement and the demand to defund the police. Stanford Journal of Civil Rights & Civil Liberties, 17, 499–550. https://law.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Bedi_Limiting-Police-Presence-Power_Revised-3.21.22-1.pdf

11. Berg, M. T., & Lauritsen, J. L. (2016). Telling a similar story twice? NCVS/UCR convergence in serious violent crime rates in rural, suburban, and urban places (1973–2010). Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 32, 61–87. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10940-015-9254-9

12. Blair, J., Pollock, J., Montague, D., Nichols, T., Curnutt, J., & Burns, D. (2011). Reasonableness and reaction time. Police Quarterly, 14(4), 323–343. https://doi.org/10.1177/1098611111423737

13. Bottoms, A., & Tankebe, J. (2012). Beyond procedural justice: A dialogic approach to legitimacy in criminal justice. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 102(1), 119–170. https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/jclc/vol102/iss1/4

14. Brezina, T., Agnew, R., Cullen, F. T., & Wright, J. P. (2004). The code of the street: A quantitative assessment of Elijah Anderson's subculture of violence thesis and its contribution to youth violence research. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 2(4), 303–328. https://doi.org/10.1177/1541204004267780

15. Campaign Zero. (2022). Mapping Police Violence. [Data Set]. https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/

16. Carlson, J. (2020). Police warriors and police guardians: Race, masculinity, and the construction of gun violence. Social Problems, 67(3), 399–417. https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spz020

17. Clark, T. J., Conrad, C. G., Cummings, A. D. P., & Dunn-Johnson, A. (2023). Trauma-informed policing: The impact of adult and childhood trauma on law enforcement officers. Case Western Reserve Law Review, 73(3), 843–894. https://ssrn.com/abstract=4637161

18. Cobbina-Dungy, J., Chaudhuri, S., LaCourse, A., & DeJong, C. (2022). "Defund the police:" Perceptions among protesters in the 2020 March on Washington. Criminology & Public Policy, 21(1), 147–174. https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12571

19. Comer, B., & Ingram, J. (2022). Comparing Fatal Encounters, Mapping Police Violence, and Washington Post Fatal Police Shooting data from 2015–2019: A research note. Criminal Justice Review, 48(2), 249–261. https://doi.org/10.1177/07340168211071014

20. Conner, A., Azrael, D., Lyons, V. H., Barber, C., & Miller, M. (2019). Validating the national violent death reporting system as a source of data on fatal shootings of civilians by law enforcement officers. American Journal of Public Health, 109(4), 578–584. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2018.304904

21. Craig, M., & Reid, J. (2022). Progressive or problematic? A comparative analysis of media depictions of demands to defund the police. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 45(4), 600–617. https://doi.org/10.1108/PIJPSM-09-2021-0124

22. De Angelis, R. (2024). Systemic racism in police killings: New evidence from the Mapping Police Violence database, 2013–2021. Race and Justice, 14(3), 413–422. https://doi.org/10.1177/21533687211047943

23. DeGue, S., Fowler, K. A., & Calkins, C. (2016). Deaths due to use of lethal force by law enforcement: Findings from the National Violent Death Reporting System, 17 U.S. States, 20092012. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 51(3), S173–S187. https://doi.org/10.1016/jamepre.2016.08.027

24. Doucette, M., Ward, J., McCourt, A., Webster, D., & Crifasi, C. (2022). Officer-involved shootings and concealed carry weapons permitting laws: Analysis of gun violence archive data, 2014-2020. Journal of Urban Health, 99(3), 373–384. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-022-00627-5

25. Engel, R., Corsaro, N., Isaza, G., & McManus, H. (2022). Assessing the impact of de-escalation training on police behavior: Reducing police use of force in the Louisville, KY Metro Police Department. Criminology & Public Policy, 21(2), 199–233. https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12574

26. Engel, R., McManus, H., & Herold, T. (2020). Does de-escalation training work? Criminology & Public Policy, 19(3), 721–759. https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12467

27. Feldman, J., Gruskin, S., Coull, B., & Krieger, N. (2017). Quantifying underreporting of law- enforcement-related deaths in United States vital statistics and news-media-based data sources: A capture-recapture analysis. PLoS Medicine, 14(10), E1002399. https://doi.org/10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1002399

28. Finch, W. H. (2020). Using fit statistic differences to determine the optimal number of factors to retain in an exploratory factor analysis. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 80(2), 217–241. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164419865769

29. Fox, J. (2008). Applied regression analysis and generalized linear models (2nd ed.). Sage Publications.

30. Fridel, E. E., Sheppard, K. G., & Zimmerman, G. M. (2020). Integrating the literature on police use of deadly force and police lethal victimization: How does place impact fatal police-citizen encounters? Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 36(4), 957–992. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10940-019-09438-5

31. Friedrich, R. J. (1980). Police use of force: Individuals, situations, and organizations. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 452(1), 82–97. https://doi.org/10.1177/000271628045200109

32. Fyfe, J. J. (1981). Observations on police deadly force. Crime & Delinquency, 27(3), 376–389. https://doi.org/10.1177/001112878102700305

33. Fyfe, J. J. (1988). Police use of deadly force: Research and reform. Justice Quarterly, 5(2), 165–205. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418828800089691

34. Fyfe, J. J. (2002). Too many missing cases: Holes in our knowledge about police use of force. Justice Research and Policy, 4(1–2), 87–102. https://doi.org/10.3818/irq4.L2002.87

35. Fyfe, J. J., & Walker, J. T. (1990). Garner plus five years: An examination of Supreme Court intervention into police discretion and legislative prerogatives. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 14(2), 167–188. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02892064

36. Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority, 1469 U.S. 528 (1985).

37. Garrett, B., & Slobogin, C. (2020). The law on police use of force in the United States. German Law Journal, 21(8), 1526–1540. http://doi.org/10.1017/gli.2020.92

38. Gill, S. (2015). Use of deadly force by law enforcement: Building public trust. The Prosecutor, 49(2), 20–21. https://ndaa.org/wp-content/uploads/DeadlyForce.pdf

39. Goode, D. (2018). Law enforcement policies and the reasonable use of force. Willamette Law Review, 54(2), 371–425. https://ssrn.com/abstract=3767629

40. Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386 (1989). https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/490/386/

41. Grunwald, B., & Rappaport, J. (2020). The wandering officer. Yale Law Journal, 129(6), 1676–1782.

42. Guss, C. D., Tuason, M. T., & Devine, A. (2020). Problems with police reports as data sources: A researchers' perspective. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 582428. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.582428

43. Hine, K. A., Porter, L. E., Westera, N. J., Alpert, G. P., & Allen, A. (2018). Exploring police use of force decision-making processes and impairments using a naturalistic decision-making approach. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 45(11), 17821801. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093854818789726

44. James, L. (2018). The stability of implicit racial bias in police officers. Police Quarterly, 21(1), 30–52. https://doi.org/10.1177/1098611117732974

45. Jennings, J., & Rubado, M. (2017). Preventing the use of deadly force: The relationship between police agency policies and rates of officer-involved gun deaths. Public Administration Review, 77(2), 217–226. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12738

46. Jensen, E. M., & Entin, J. L. (1998). Commandeering, the Tenth Amendment, and the Federal Requisition Power: New York v. United States Revisited. Constitutional Commentary, 15(2), 355–381. https://hdl.handle.net/11299/167699

47. Kivisto, A. J., Ray, B., & Phalen, P. L. (2017). Firearm legislation and fatal police shootings in the United States. American Journal of Public Health, 107(7), 1068–1075. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2017.303770

48. Klinger, D. (2012). On the problems and promise of research on lethal police violence. Homicide Studies, 16(1), 78–96. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088767911430861

49. Land, K. C., McCall, P. L., & Cohen, L. E. (1990). Structural covariates of homicide rates: Are there any invariances across time and social space? American Journal of Sociology, 95(4), 922–963. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/229381

50. Lee, C. (2018). Reforming the law on police use of deadly force: De-escalation, preseizure conduct, and imperfect self-defense. University of Illinois Law Review, 2018(2), 629–691. http://ssrn.com/abstract=3036934

51. Lum, C., Stoltz, M., Koper, C., & Scherer, J. (2019). Research on body-worn cameras. Criminology & Public Policy, 78(1), 93–118. https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12412

52. Lyle, P., & Esmail, A. (2016). Sworn to protect: Police brutality – A dilemma for America's police. Race, Gender & Class, 23(3–4), 155–185.

53. Maguire, E. R., Lowrey, B. V., & Johnson, D. (2017). Evaluating the relative impact of positive and negative encounters with police: A randomized experiment. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 73(3), 367–391. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11292-016-9276-9

54. Matusiak, M., Cavanaugh, M., & Stephenson, M. (2022). An assessment of officer-involved shooting data transparency in the United States. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 37(1–2), 472–496. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260520913646

55. Mazerolle, L., Bennett, S., Davis, J., Sargeant, E., & Manning, M. (2013). Procedural justice and police legitimacy: A systematic review of the research evidence. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 9(3), 245–274. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1007/s11292-013-9175-2

56. McCall, P. L., Land, K. C., & Parker, K. F. (2010). An empirical assessment of what we know about structural covariates of homicide rates: A return to a classic 20 years later. Homicide Studies, 14(3), 219–243. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088767910371166

57. McLean, K., Stoughton, S.W. & Alpert, G.P. (2022). Police uses of force in the USA: A wealth of theories and a lack of evidence. Cambridge Journal of Evidence-based Policing, 6, 87–108. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41887-022-00078-7

58. Meyn, I. (2021). The invisible rules that govern use of force. Wisconsin Law Review, 593–656. https://ssrn.com/abstract=3808250

59. Mourtgos, S., & Adams, I. (2020). Assessing public perceptions of police use-of-force: Legal reasonableness and community standards. Justice Quarterly, 37(5), 869–899. https://doi.org/10.1177/08874034211038346

60. Muir, W. K. Jr. (1979). Police: Streetcorner politicians. University of Chicago Press.

61. Nix, J., & Shjarback, J. A. (2021). Factors associated with police shooting mortality: A focus on race and a plea for more comprehensive data. PLoS ONE, 16(11), e0259024. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0259024

62. Nix, J., Campbell, B. A., Byers, E. H., & Alpert, G. P. (2017). A bird's eye view of civilians killed by police in 2015: Further evidence of implicit bias. Criminology & Public Policy, 16(1), 309–340. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12269

63. O'Leary, M. (2015). Officer-involved shooting databases. Information Today, 32(2), 16–21.

64. Oramas Mora, D., Terrill, W., & Foster, J. (2023). A decade of police use of deadly force research (2011–2020). Homicide Studies, 27(1), 6–33. https://doi.org/10.1177/10887679221123591

65. Pinizzotto, A., Davis, E., Bohrer, S., & Infanti, B. (2012). Law enforcement restraint in the use of deadly force within the context of 'the deadly mix.' International Journal of Police Science & Management, 14(4), 285–298. https://doi.org/10.1350/ijps.2012.14.4.289

66. Police and Community Relations Improvement Act, 50 ILCS 727. (2015). https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs5.asp7ActID=3660&ChapterID= 11

67. Rich, K. (2019). Trauma-informed police responses to rape victims. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment and Trauma, 28(4), 463–480. https://doi.org/10.1080/10926771.2018.1540448

68. Rogna, M., & Nguyen, B. D. (2022). Firearms law and fatal police shootings: A panel data analysis. Applied Economics, 54(27), 3121–3137. https://doi.org/10.1080/00036846.2021.2003290

69. Roiphe, R. (2017). The duty to charge in police use of excessive force cases. Cleveland State Law Review, 65(4), 503–518. https://digitalcommons.nyls.edu/facarticleschapters/1050/

70. Rydberg, J., & Terrill, W. (2010). The effect of higher education on police behavior. Police Quarterly, 13(1), 92–120. https://doi.org/10.1177/1098611109357325

71. Sampson, R. J., & Wilson, W. J. (2013). Toward a theory of race, crime, and urban inequality. In S. Gabbidon & H. Taylor Greene (Eds.), Race, crime, and justice: A reader (pp. 177–190). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203955048

72. Schwartz, J. (2017). How qualified immunity fails. The Yale Law Journal, 127(1), 2–76.

73. Scott v. Harris, 550 U.S. 372 (2007).

74. Shjarback, J. A., Semenza, D. C., & Stansfield, R. (2023). Firearm availability and police shootings of citizens: A city level analysis of fatal and injurious shootings in California and Florida. Injury Epidemiology, 10(50). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40621-023-00466-1

75. Sierra-Arevalo, M. (2021). American policing and the danger imperative. Law & Society Review, 55(1), 70–103. https://doi.org/10.1111/lasr.12526

76. Sierra-Arevalo, M., Nix, J., & Mourtgos, S. M. (2023). The “War on Cops”, retaliatory violence, and the murder of George Floyd. Criminology, 61(3), 389–420. https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9125.12334

77. Sivaraman, J. J., Marshall, S. W., & Ranapurwala, S. I. (2020). State firearm laws, race and law enforcement-related deaths in 16 US states: 20102016. Injury Prevention, 26(6), 569–572. https://doi.org/10.1136/iniuryprev-2020-043681

78. Skolnick, J. H., & Fyfe, J. J. (1993). Above the law: Police and excessive use of force. Free Press.

79. Smith Lee, J. R., & Robinson, M. A. (2019). “That's my number one fear in life. It's the police”: Examining young Black men's exposures to trauma and loss resulting from police violence and police killings. Journal of Black Psychology, 45(3), 143–184. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095798419865152

80. Smith, M., Petrocelli, M., & Scheer, C. (2007). Excessive force, civil liability, and the Taser in the nation's courts. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 30(3), 398–422. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13639510710778813

81. Snipes, J. B., & Mastrofski, S. D. (1990). An empirical test of Muir's typology of police officers. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 14(2), 268–296. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02892069

82. Steele, M. J., & Qi, Ziwei. (2024). The Impact of State Laws on Officer-Involved Deaths (OIDs). Criminology, Criminal Justice, Law & Society, 25(3), 1–20.

83. Stoughton, S. W., Noble, J. J., & Alpert, G. P. (2021). Evaluating police uses of force. NYU Press.

84. Swanson, A. (2016). Revisiting Garner with Garner: A look at deadly force and the use of chokeholds & neck restraints by law enforcement. South Texas Law Review, 57(3), 401–438.

85. Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1 (1985).

86. Terrill, W., & Paoline, E. (2017). Police use of less lethal force: Does administrative policy matter? Justice Quarterly, 34(2), 193–216. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2016.1147593

87. Tsui, K., So, F., Sze, N., Wong, S., & Leung, T. (2009). Misclassification of injury severity among road casualties in police reports. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 41(1), 84–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/jaap.2008.09.005

88. U.S. Census Bureau. (2013–2019). American Community Survey. [Data Set]. www.data.census.gov

89. Van der Weele, T. J., & Mathur, M. B. (2019). Some desirable properties of the Bonferroni Correction: Is the Bonferroni Correction really so bad? American Journal of Epidemiology, 188(3), 617–618. https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwy250

90. White, M. D. (2020). Ambush killings of the police, 1970-2018: A longitudinal examination of the “War on Cops” debate. Police Quarterly, 23(4), 451–471. https://doi.org/10.1177/1098611120919441

91. Wilson, W. J. (2012). The truly disadvantaged: The inner city, the underclass, and public policy. University of Chicago Press.