Behind the Badge and the Veil: Black Police Officers in the Era of Black Lives Matter

Objective: With the rise in the Movement for Black Lives, police departments have come under scrutiny for issues related to police officer racial diversity. Some experts have argued that officer racial diversity will help to improve community-police relations by increasing perceived police legitimacy and subsequently ease growing tensions that have emerged in the wake of instances of racialized police violence. At the same time, little is known about how racial diversity impacts various policing outcomes. Much less is known about the experiences of these officers, and Black officers in particular, in departments across the country. The purpose of the present study was to examine the perceptions and experiences of Black police officers in the context of the Black Lives Matter movement and racialized police violence. Method: The study consists of 48 qualitative interviews with Black police officers from a large urban police department. Results: Findings reveal that the Black officers did not exist in a vacuum and instead held unique perspectives that were conditioned by competing expectations and ideologies in both their racial and occupational communities. Conclusion: Although all officers reported experiencing race in similar ways as Black civilians, their perceptions of interactions between race and policing varied greatly. Findings suggest that Black officers possess a double consciousness, that enables them to view and experience the world through both a racialized and occupational lens.