Racism, Implicit Bias, and Police Shootings: A Call to Action

Images and videos of Terence Crutcher went viral following his shooting on September 16 in Tulsa. According to news reports, Crutcher was unarmed, with his hands in the air when officer Shelby shot him. This recent shooting is added to the laundry lists of Black men and women who have been killed by police and shared on social media.

Reports note that Crutcher was shot on Sept. 16 when officers responded to a call about a stalled vehicle on the side of the road. The U.S. Department of Justice and the local authorities are currently investigating the shooting. However, given the cases of several police officers who have not been charged for the shootings of African Americans one must wonder if Mr. Crutchers death will only result in another #hashtag.

In the past few months, tension has grown in America as the Black Lives Matter movement continues to call for justice to be served following shootings in Baton Rouge and Dallas this summer. Data from the Pew Research Center reports that most Americans view race relations as getting worse. According to the poll, 61% of Blacks versus 45% of Whites believe that race relations are generally bad. These rates appear to have gotten significantly worse since 2014.

In July, I had the opportunity to co-lead a discussion on twitter with the American Psychological Association (APA) on the impact of racism on mental health (see story here: https://storify.com/APAPublicInt/pfychat-stress-discrimination-and-mental-health ). The twitter chat was a follow-up to the APA Stress in America survey that was released earlier in 2016. The Stress in America survey http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/ showed that 76% of Blacks reported experiencing discrimination. Even more disheartening was the fact that 39% of Black men compared to 19% of all men reported being treated unfairly by police (e.g., unfairly stopped, searched, or abused).

Many have called for action to address police brutality and racism. During his press conference (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHl_E2DhTPI ), Tulsa Police Chief Chuck Jordan stated, I want to assure our community and I want to assure all of you and people across the nation who are going to be looking at this: We will achieve justice. So far in the cases where there have been recordings of police shooting Black men the verdicts have not been acceptable.

It is time that communities, law enforcement, national and local organizations, and policy makers work together to bring about change to address these injustices and systemic racism. In a recent interview , presidential candidate Hillary Clinton called for policy change to improve policies and address implicit biases among law enforcement. Implicit biases are unconscious negative attitudes and beliefs about a group of people. For example, an implicit bias among law enforcement may be that Black people are bad or violent.

As a field, psychology has been involved in decades of research to understand implicit biases and how it impacts behavior. It is my belief that this knowledge must be used to serve as a change agent. There are several things that can be done to address racism and implicit biases among law enforcement. As a Black psychologist, I urge the American Psychological Association to utilize its research knowledge and policy efforts to continue advocating law makers to create legislation that will improve training for police officers and promote social justice efforts at local levels to help empower communities to combat discriminatory practices. In the past, the APA has been a powerhouse in supporting legislation for health-care reform and gay marriage. I believe it's a human rights issue that APA collaborates with others to address police brutality.