Kayla Washington

Reflective Writing Portfolio

Professor Hampton

April 8, 2018

Police Reform

Police brutality is the use of excessive or unneeded force by police when interacting with

civilians. According to The Guardian, 265 blacks were killed by police in 2016, who make up

only 13% of the United States’ population, compared to 574 whites killed by police, who make

up 62.6% of the population.1 Speaking demographically, this exhibits the problem of police

brutality in the United States. Proving that any instance of police brutality is directly linked to

officer prejudice can be difficult; however, implicit bias plays some role in the disparity between

police interactions with blacks and whites. Studies from the University of Colorado in 2007

placed officers in simulations that requested them to identify the objects white and black subjects

were holding.2 Once they decided, the officers then chose whether to shoot or not. After repeated

trials, researchers found officers were quicker to decide to shoot black subjects than armed

whites and took significantly longer to spare unarmed blacks. Racial bias crept into these

officers’ minds, despite many denying they possessed any at all. In order to reform the police

system, implicit bias training would play a significant role. This training would consist of not

1 Swaine, Jon, Oliver Laughland, Jamiles Lartey, Kenan Davis, Rich Harris, Nadja Popovich, Kenton Powell, and
Guardian US Interactive Team. "The Counted: people killed by police in the United States – interactive." The
Guardian. Accessed January 10, 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2015/jun/01/the-
counted-police-killings-us-database.
2 James, Tom. "Can Cops Unlearn Their Unconscious Biases?" The Atlantic. December 23, 2017. Accessed March

24, 2018. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/12/implicit-bias-training-salt-lake/548996/.

only acknowledging that prejudices exist, but training enforcement to not act on these

subconscious prejudices.3

In order to implement a possible solution like implicit bias training, the history of

policing in the United States must be explored. The police system that we have today has its

roots in slave patrols and night watches. Both of these forms of policing were created to control

the behaviors of minorities. Slave patrollers were referred to as “patter rollers” which were

organized groups of white men, who enforced discipline upon black slaves. The patrollers duties

included: "apprehending runaways, monitoring the rigid pass requirements for blacks traversing

the countryside, breaking up large gatherings and assemblies of blacks, visiting and searching

slave quarters randomly, inflicting impromptu punishments, and as occasion arose, suppressing

insurrections."4 All of these duties sound similar to the duties of modern police when it comes to

dealing with suspects of a crime, but reveal the sinister nature of policing in American culture.

The excessive force used against African Americans today, stems from the larger problem of

black lives not being valued or seen as human in the United States, a dilemma dating back

centuries.

The first instance of policing were slaveholders during chattel slavery. Slaves were

considered to be actual property, who could be purchased, traded, sold, and inherited, as if they

were mere domesticated animals. According to Many Thousands Gone, by Ira Berlin,

“Slaveholders discovered much of value in supremacist ideology. The inferiority of black people

confirmed the necessity, if not the benevolence, of mastership.” Berlin goes on to say that

3
Chuck, Elizabeth. "'Implicit bias': Can you retrain the brain not to act on prejudices?" NBCNews.com. October 01,
2016. Accessed January 13, 2017. http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/can-implicit-bias-training-stop-police-
officers-acting-hidden-prejudice-n656071.
4
Hadden, Sally E. (2001). Slave Patrols: Law and Violence in Virginia and the Carolinas. Harvard University Press.
slaveholders promoted the “most humane—place for black people was under the watchful

supervision of a white master.” This “supremacist ideology” created the idea and standard that it

was a necessity for blacks to be policed because they were thought to be sub-human compared to

whites. The culture Berlin describes only continued through slavery and manifested into other

forms of policing that are embedded in our policing system today.

Patrollers did not stop once slavery ended and continued post-Civil War. White

Southerners were still worried about the black population and particularly those that were

resistant. Instead of these groups being called patrollers, they morphed into the infamous Ku

Klux Klan, known for terrorizing African Americans. From the perspective of white Southerners,

who just had lost a war to the North, private citizens were needed to take matters into their own

hands, since the North refused to prosecute freedmen who broke laws.5 Although it is assumed

that this form of policing only occurred in the South, the Northern police departments were

formed on the same model pioneered by the South. Most officers were taught to maintain order

through the use of violence, which is why there was extreme brutality perpetuated against the

black community. This brutality has manifested into the police brutality we see today, which is

why it is a necessity for America to recognize the racism that built our police system.

The current state of police brutality in America is a social epidemic. Many may question

how our country has gotten to this point, but the reality is America has always been built on the

oppression of racial minorities. The superior ideology whites embedded in the foundation of this

country beginning with slavery, morphed into the terrorism the Ku Klux Klan perpetuated, and

now the implicit bias police officers have. The direct link police brutality has with implicit bias

5
Carter, Stephen L. "Policing and Oppression Have a Long History." Bloomberg View. October 29, 2015. Accessed
January 13, 2017. http://origin-www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-10-29/policing-and-oppression-have-a-
long-history.
makes it evident that police brutality will take diligence and hard work to stop. Although there is

no simple solution to erase officers of their prejudices, discussing the history of policing in

America and making officers aware of the implicit bias they have, in hopes of not acting on said

bias, is a foundation for police reform.

Bibliography

Swaine, Jon, Oliver Laughland, Jamiles Lartey, Kenan Davis, Rich Harris, Nadja Popovich,
Kenton Powell, and Guardian US Interactive Team. "The Counted: people killed by police in the
United States – interactive." The Guardian. Accessed January 10, 2017.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2015/jun/01/the-counted-police-killings-
us-database.

James, Tom. "Can Cops Unlearn Their Unconscious Biases?" The Atlantic. December 23, 2017.
Accessed March 24, 2018. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/12/implicit-bias-
training-salt-lake/548996/.

Chuck, Elizabeth. "'Implicit bias': Can you retrain the brain not to act on prejudices?"
NBCNews.com. October 01, 2016. Accessed January 13, 2017.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/can-implicit-bias-training-stop-police-officers-acting-
hidden-prejudice-n656071.

Hadden, Sally E. (2001). Slave Patrols: Law and Violence in Virginia and the Carolinas.
Harvard University Press.

Carter, Stephen L. "Policing and Oppression Have a Long History." Bloomberg View. October
29, 2015. Accessed January 13, 2017. http://origin-www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-10-
29/policing-and-oppression-have-a-long-history.