Cerny 1

Annotated Bibliography

Police Brutality: An Epidemic or Isolated Incidences?

Zachary Cerny

Professor Campbell

UWRT 1103

October 13, 2019

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Annotated Bibliography

Chapman, Brett. “Body-Worn Cameras: What the Evidence Tells Us.” ​National Institute of

Justice,​ 14 Nov 2018,

nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/body-worn-cameras-what-evidence-tells-us. Accessed 15

Oct 2019.

This article from​ a reliable(1)​ website discusses and evaluates how body cameras

worn by police officers could affect the use of police brutality towards individuals.

Body worn cameras were implemented to about 1/3 of U.S. municipal police

departments in 2013. The author states there are numerous potential benefits from all

police departments implementing cameras including: better transparency, increased

civility, quicker resolution, corroborating evidence, and training opportunities. The

author says that the cameras could have better ​transparency(2)​ for police officers;

that many communities do not have very much trust in their police officers anymore

and that cameras would show what they are really doing so, that will rebuild trust

amongst communities. Increased civility would be an outcome because some people

act in a different manner when they know that they are being recorded. This could

potentially prevent the need for force to be used in interactions with individuals.

Cameras could also help obtain evidence to help prove someone guilty or not guilty.

It would save the police officers a lot of time and paperwork trying to coordinate

their evidence when they could just show the video and it could make the trial

process a lot faster. Law enforcement agencies could review the officer’s cameras
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and train them on things that they could do better, and they could also use the footage

to train new officers. According to a study done in the United Kingdom indicated

that cameras resulted in positive connection between the police officer and the

citizens. It also made the citizens feel much safer while talking to them. A study

done with the Rialto Police Department indicated that there were decreased in

use-of-force incidents and also less citizen complaints with officers that had a body

camera. The author states that there is still more research that needs to be done to

determine if body cameras are effective as this study says they are. 14 studies have

been completed and at least 30 others are examining the various outcomes of the

impact of cameras according to George Mason University. The author is a social

science analyst in the National Institute of Justice’s Office of Research and

Evaluation. The purpose of ​this article(3)​ from a reliable website is to inform police

departments on the potentially advantage they can have by enforcing their officers to

wear body cameras. My other sources indicate that cameras could potentially help

decrease the likelihood of police officers racially profiling individuals and this source

backs up why that idea could be beneficial and that is why I will use this article for

my project.

Edwards, Esposito, Frank. “Risk of Being Killed by Police Use of Force in the United

States by Age, Race–Ethnicity, and Sex.” ​PNAS​, National Academy of Sciences, 5

Aug 2019, www.pnas.org/content/116/34/16793. Accessed 15 Oct 2019.

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This academic article discusses a study that examines how the risk of being killed by

police in the United States varies across different social groups. The author says that

based on the information we have ​show(4)​ that African Americans are at more risk of

police-involved injuries than white individuals. ​ But, according to the author, “We(5)

lack basic estimates of the prevalence of police-involved deaths, largely due to the

absence of definitive official data.” ​The results of the data show that out of every

100,000 men and boys, 52 of them are estimated to be killed by police. Only three

out of 100,000 women are likely to be killed by police. African American men have

the highest mortality risk at 2.5 times more likely than white men. African American

women are 1.4 times more likely that white women. About one in 1,000

African(6)​American men and boys have the potential to be killed by police officers.

The use of force by police officers is peak towards individuals between the age of 20

and 35, the likelihood declines with age. African American men between the ages of

25 and 29 are killed by police at a rate of 2.8 to 4.1 per 100,000. This information

has police violence as one of the leading causes of death for African American males

between 25 and 29. The authors point of view indicates that gender, race, and age all

play a part in the actions performed by police officers. The article states that we need

to reduce police violence, but it is going to be hard to do with the lack of accurate

evidence. It also states some ways to reduce violence in the future including that

police officers should not be used as first responders for forms of crisis or mental

health cases. Restricting that could lower the number of deaths. The information in

this article was supported by the three lead study authors, ​who work for
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universities.(8) Edwards at Rutgers University, the School of Criminal Justice. (7)

Lee at Washington University, Department of Sociology. Esposito at the University

of Michigan, the Institute for Social Research. The studies done took statistics from

2013-2018 to gather their information. The article has ways that they think could

help the matter in the future. I will use this information to further analyze if race

truly does have a factor in the way individuals are treated by police officers.

Khan, Amina. “Getting Killed by Police Is a Leading Cause of Death for Young Black

Men in America.” ​Los Angeles Times​, 16 Aug 2019,P

www.latimes.com/science/story/2019-08-15/police-shootings-are-a-leading-cause-of-

death-for-black-men. Accessed 13 Oct 2019

This news article examines a study done by Frank Edwards, a sociologist at Rutgers

University, of the likelihood of various races, particularly African American males,

getting killed at the hands of police officers versus the likelihood of it happening to

white males. The analysis shows that African American males between the age of

twenty-five to twenty-nine have a one in one thousand chance of a death involving

law enforcement officers. This is two and a half times more likely than it happening

to a White male. One of the main points is that the number might not be entirely

accurate due to the fact it is almost impossible to get the true number of deaths from

law enforcement agencies. According to Retired Police Major Neill Franklin “We

need to do a much better job on monitoring the interactions of our police officers as

they’re going about their daily duties.” The United States currently does not fully
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monitor a police officer’s everyday work life, so it is very hard to get accurate

information regarding their interactions. The study authors state a potentially

solution would be to create programs that could lower the unnecessary police contact

with young African American males. They also say there could potentially be other

factors that play a part in this. For example, the color of a person’s skin within their

ethnic group could affect their risk and​ geography (9) c​ould be a reason. The United

States currently does not have enough data available to be able to answer these

questions. The information presented in this article is supported by the analysis of a

study. Khan has been a reporter for ten years for the ​Los Angeles Times, ​who has a

slightly biased democratic viewpoint. The author spoke to numerous individuals

regarding this issue including some sociologist from various Universities and some

individuals that are in law enforcement agencies. The article also has information

about how to potentially help this matter in the future. I will use this article to

examine the statistics we have involving deaths by police officers to African

American males.

Liza: You provided well written summaries and include very good information. Besides a few
grammatical errors, I think this is really well written. He might look for a further
evaluation/assessment of the sources because the rubric includes a lot of questions to answer, but
I think you still met the requirements.

Ashley: I thought this was really good, and the information provided was really interesting. I
would maybe add more to your last annotation. I also think maybe the last two are very similar
so I would suggest maybe finding one that talks about a different subject.

1. I maybe wouldn't put that it is a reliable source first because I think that is supposed to go 
after the summary  
2. maybe elaborate on this more? 
3. what type of article 
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4. Shown 
5. Comma after author 
6. This paragraph seems a bit choppy maybe find a way to better get all the facts across 
7. just combine these it will make it easier to read 
8. This doesn’t need to be capitalized 
9. maybe explain why is geography a reason