By Samuel Sinyangwe, FEB. 4, 2021
The Biden administration plan to “root out” bias within the nation’s local police departments relies in large part on the U.S. Department of Justice’s authority to launch civil rights investigations and require the adoption of new use of force standards, accountability structures and other systemic changes in places where its investigators find a “pattern or practice” of unlawful or discriminatory policing. .
Which cities should the Department of Justice investigate?
To determine which police departments might fit these criteria, I calculated per capita arrest rates and police killings rates for some of the largest U.S. cities’ police departments (cities with more than 500,000 residents, according to the U.S. Census).