# At what rate do black officers shoot black people? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 12, 2016, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-rate-do-black-officers-shoot-black-people/759702 "2016-07-12T01:54:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sweeteviljesus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@sweeteviljesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweeteviljesus)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-rate-do-black-officers-shoot-black-people/759702/1 "2016-07-12T01:54:38Z")
I know about the rate that black people are shot by police (roughly 1/3 of victims, despite being less that 1/6 of the population), but what I wasn’t able to find was the rate at which black people are shot by black officers. Is this published? Thanks, Rob ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-rate-do-black-officers-shoot-black-people/759702/2 "2016-07-12T02:25:59Z")
Anecdotally, I’ve heard from police office friends that it’s about the same as for white officers. I note that the recent shooting of a black person in Minnesota was done by a Hispanic officer. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-rate-do-black-officers-shoot-black-people/759702/3 "2016-07-12T02:35:28Z")
I only found one [site](https://www.propublica.org/article/deadly-force-in-black-and-white) that seemed to have credible figures. They say that about ten percent of the police officers involved in fatal shootings are black. The percentage of police officers who are black is around [twelve percent](http://www.wsj.com/articles/percentage-of-african-americans-in-u-s-police-departments-remains-flat-since-2007-1431628990) so it appears that black officers involved in shootings are proportionate to their overall numbers. ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-rate-do-black-officers-shoot-black-people/759702/4 "2016-07-12T18:51:00Z")
From Little Nemo’s cite:" Black officers account for a little more than 10 percent of all fatal police shootings. Of those they kill, though, 78 percent were black. White officers, given their great numbers in so many of the country’s police departments, are well represented in all categories of police killings. White officers killed 91 percent of the whites who died at the hands of police. And they were responsible for 68 percent of the people of color killed. Those people of color represented 46 percent of all those killed by white officers." ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-rate-do-black-officers-shoot-black-people/759702/5 "2016-07-12T19:20:46Z")
NYTimes, 10/11/16 > **[Surprising New Evidence Shows Bias in Police Use of Force but Not in...](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/12/upshot/surprising-new-evidence-shows-bias-in-police-use-of-force-but-not-in-shootings.html)** > > Contradicting conventional wisdom: When it comes to the most lethal form of force, a study finds no racial bias. A re-evaluation of the reports. NYTimes: 10/16/15 [Police Killings of Blacks: Here Is What the Data Say - The New York Times](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/18/upshot/police-killings-of-blacks-what-the-data-says.html) Washington Post (shaky methodology) continuous spreadsheet: [https://github.com/washingtonpost/data-police-shootings](https://github.com/washingtonpost/data-police-shootings) ---
**Author:** ![Turble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Turble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turble)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2016, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-rate-do-black-officers-shoot-black-people/759702/6 "2016-07-13T15:49:07Z")
Here are a couple of sites where you may find the answer to your question: Some commentary and analysis of crime statistics – [The Color of Crime](http://www.colorofcrime.com/2016/03/the-color-of-crime-2016-revised-edition/) > [@](#): > > The evidence suggests that if there is police racial bias in arrests it is negligible. Victim and witness surveys show that police arrest violent criminals in close proportion to the rates at which criminals of different races commit violent crimes. > > In 2015, a black person was 2.45 times more likely than a white person to be shot and killed by the police. A Hispanic person was 1.21 times more likely. These figures are well within what would be expected given race differences in crime rates and likelihood to resist arrest. Links to actual crime statistics by race without commentary – [Crime and Enforcement Activity in New York City](http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/analysis_and_planning/crime_and_enforcement_activity.shtml) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2016, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-rate-do-black-officers-shoot-black-people/759702/7 "2016-07-13T16:17:58Z")
> [@](#): > > These figures are well within what would be expected given race differences in crime rates and likelihood to resist arrest. Isn’t this begging the question? Anybody who has been shot by the police is then stated to have been committing a crime and resisting arrest. ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2016, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-rate-do-black-officers-shoot-black-people/759702/8 "2016-07-13T16:46:55Z")
> [@Turble](#): > > Here are a couple of sites where you may find the answer to your question: > > Some commentary and analysis of crime statistics – > [The Color of Crime](http://www.colorofcrime.com/2016/03/the-color-of-crime-2016-revised-edition/) > > Links to actual crime statistics by race without commentary – > [Crime and Enforcement Activity in New York City](http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/analysis_and_planning/crime_and_enforcement_activity.shtml) > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Isn’t this begging the question? Anybody who has been shot by the police is then stated to have been committing a crime and resisting arrest. I think they are comparing shootings to global arrest figures, not just to people who have been shot. Basically, they are comparing the incidence of shooting to the incidence of arrest. More “contacts” makes for more opportunities for bad outcomes. This suggests that the disparity is not in lethal violence during a policing event, but in the number of events. So the core issue is whatever causes more arrests and other police contacts; which could be due to race (racial profiling), poverty which is associated with race, or violent crime which is associated with poverty which is associated with race. (Also, an earlier linked article did note a racial disparity in the amount of non-lethal force used by police when compared to arrests.) ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2016, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-rate-do-black-officers-shoot-black-people/759702/9 "2016-07-13T17:18:46Z")
Good stuff, guys.