Racial Bias and Lethal Force Errors Among Canadian Police Officers

Public Significance Statement Academic research in psychology presents conflicting evidence for anti-White, anti-Black, and no racial bias. Further, lay popularity of the Implicit Association Test (IAT) has informed public policy recommendations to use the IAT as a screening tool for unconscious racial bias among police in Canada. The present study reveals anti-Black biases in police shooting errors that align with North American population studies showing anti-Black bias, but which are not statistically significant compared to scenarios featuring White suspects. Our findings do not support using the IAT as a screening tool for predicting racially biased shooting behavior among police. Scientific examination of racial disparities in police shootings shows conflicting evidence of anti-Black, anti-White, or no racial bias. Experimental studies that attempt to control for extraneous factors often lack ecological validity and have inconsistent approaches for measuring racial bias. Given the mounting outcry for police reform, including recommendations for racial bias screening and training, clarifying the relationship between observable lethal force behaviors and implicit racial bias is an urgent matter. Building on limited extant literature, the present study examined racial disparities in shoot/no-shoot decision-making among Canadian police officers (n = 187) during their service's annual recertification assessment that manipulated suspect race (Black or White) in otherwise identical scenarios. Lethal force errors were compared to implicit racial bias scores on the Implicit Association Test (IAT) and other demographic variables including officer sex, age, years of experience, and race. We found no statistically significant difference in error rates for simulations featuring a Black or White suspect for shoot (2.5%, 3.1%, respectively) or no-shoot scenarios (4.6%, 3.0%, respectively). Lethal force errors were not predicted by suspect race, extent of autonomic arousal, or IAT scores. However, the absolute frequencies of lethal force errors were greater in scenarios featuring Black suspects. The current findings suggest that widespread reform to police training is urgently needed to reduce racial disparities in use of force (UOF) and lethal force errors overall.