Student Review:     

      This article presents Fyfe's data found in studying police use of deadly force in New York City and Memphis.  Many studies find that police shootings more often target black individuals than whites.  Scholars that study these variation rates in police shooting explain them either by citing external variables such as community violence and threats to officer safety, or by internal variables that include administrative philosophies, adequacy of training, police shooting policies, and the level of shooting reviews.  Fyfe relies on Goldkamp's classifications of  two types of perspectives in analyzing the use of police force.  Belief Perspective I finds that police have a different attitude towards blacks and whites, and the increased level of shootings of African-Americans is triggered by racism of the police and administrators.  Belief Perspective II believes that external factors are the cause of the disproportionate level of black victims, and often postulates and cites a increased involvement of blacks in violent crimes.  Fyfe notes that due to a wide variety of policies and attitudes across the country, both Belief Perspectives may be valid.
      In order to analyze police shootings, it is necessary to separate them in to elective shootings (in which the police officer may choose to shoot or not) and nonelective shootings (in which the officer must shoot or risk death or serious injury).  Since elective shootings are based on the officer's choice, they are often influenced by internal factors (i.e. if police policy prohibits shooting fleeing suspects), while nonelective shootings are related to external factors.
      Fyfe�s study uses New York City shooting data from 1971 to 1975, and Memphis reports from 1969 to 1974.  First,  Fyfe found that police officers in Memphis were more likely to use their guns than officers from New York City.  Furthermore, Fyfe states that in this case, the number of shootings have no relation to the influence of community violence.  Both cities had equal murder rates, and New York had more violent felonies than Memphis.  Still the Memphis officers were three times more likely to use their guns in relation to police hazards.  Research also shows that 60% of New York's shooting were to defend life compared to 28% of Memphis.  Memphis demonstrated a 50% rate of shooting to apprehend suspects of property crimes when New York City's proportion was only 6%.
      Fyfe next explores the question whether the reason for the disproportion may be due to New Yorks restrictive shooting policy guidelines and internal reviews.  The guidelines in Memphis allow the use of deadly force against a fleeing felon in certain specified conditions, but never further describe what situations would be valid.  Fyfe proceeds to determine if the shootings of African-Americans in Memphis is disproportionate in light of Memphis loose guidelines.  Fyfe finds that 85.7% of the individuals shot in Memphis were black and only 14.3% were white.   Furthermore, the percentages distinctly show that the disproportionate number of black victims was highest during elective shootings of nonassaultive, unarmed individuals.  From this study, Fyfe concludes that the lack of police shooting guidelines in Memphis increased police shootings of African-Americans.  Fyfe also finds support for Belief Perspective I that racism plays a large role when police officers shoot blacks in circumstances less threatening than when they shoot whites.  Fyfe notes that since his study, the Memphis police have made progress in establishing a stricter shooting policy and administrative review system..  Fyfe hopes that other cities will take measures to reduce the amount of racism involved in elective police shootings.

Article Summary by: Corrie Noir
Wake Forest University School of Law 1999