Chicago police complaints from White citizens are twice as likely to yield discipline

Evidence

The results of these analyses showed that between March and September of 2015, while only 20 percent of abusive use of force claims were made by dominants (i.e., Whites), 62 percent of police abuse claims were filed by subordinates (i.e., Blacks). Most importantly, of those complaints filed by dominants, 57 percent of the complaints resulted in some form of disciplinary action against the accused police officer. In contrast of those complaints lodged by subordinates, only 28 percent resulted in some form of disciplinary action against the accused officer. — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 85

More recent evidence consistent with the Fourth Law-of-Law can be seen in analyses of the disposition of civilian complaints of abusive use of force filed against the Chicago Police Department as a function of the race of the complaining citizen (Aisch & Park, 2015). The results of these analyses showed that between March and September of 2015, while only 20 percent of abusive use of force claims were made by dominants (i.e., Whites), 62 percent of police abuse claims were filed by subordinates (i.e., Blacks). Most importantly, of those complaints filed by dominants, 57 percent of the complaints resulted in some form of disciplinary action against the accused police officer. In contrast of those complaints lodged by subordinates, only 28 percent resulted in some form of disciplinary action against the accused officer. — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 85

Categorization

• XREF: Concrete, citable statistic that could anchor an article about how racial bias operates in complaint-receipt pipelines rather than only in stops and arrests.
• SEED: The 57-percent versus 28-percent discipline gap is a vivid, specific stat for a piece on how complaint systems encode differential credibility by complainant race.
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law: A Definitive Look at…, 85