Enquirer: UC criminologist helps shed light on Cincinnati use-of-force reports

Cincinnati police officers used force fewer times in 2019 than in any year since at least 2000, and the number of use-of-force incidents has been steadily declining, reports The Cincinnati Enquirer. In examining the data, the Enquirer turns to University of Cincinnati criminologist Robin Engel, a renowned expert on policing policy.

Engel, a professor of criminal justice and director of the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the University of Cincinnati Center for Police Research and Policy, recently completed a report with her fellow researcher Amanda Shoulberg and the University of Texas at San Antonio researchers Michael Smith and Rob Tillyer.

Unlike the data reported in public databases, the research looked at use-of-force in Cincinnati by examining every individual report, including the narrative as written by a police supervisor, Engel explained.

Engel’s team developed a new way to code every action documented in the report, along with the usual demographic data. She also noted the resistance and force demonstrated by the citizen and how officers reacted to that.

"The race of the suspect doesn't predict the level of force that an officer will use," Engel said. "It's the level of resistance. Black and Hispanic suspects were not more likely to have higher levels of force used against them compared to white suspects. There was not a race effect there."

Engel also told The Enquirer that the research showed officers are not escalating force, and that de-escalation training “appears to be working.”

Read the full story here.

Featured image at top: police in riot gear. Photo/Unsplash/Ev