As a data scientist, I am keenly interested in using statistical analysis to understand complex social issues. For our Project 2, I explored the Washington Post’s database on fatal police shootings, aiming to unravel the patterns and trends in this contentious area.
The database, meticulously compiled by the Post from public records, news sources, and their own reporting, includes over 6,000 fatal police shooting incidents since 2015, detailed with various attributes like victim demographics, whether the victim was armed, and other contextual factors. My analysis uncovered stark racial disparities. Black Americans, who make up less than 13% of the U.S. population, constitute over 25% of the fatalities in this dataset. In contrast, the number of White American fatalities aligns more closely with their demographic proportion. This disparity becomes even more evident when focusing on unarmed victims: Black Americans, just 6% of the population, represented about 35% of unarmed individuals fatally shot. This indicates a disproportionately high risk for non-violent Black civilians in police encounters. My time series analysis also indicated that the annual rate of fatal shootings has remained fairly consistent nationwide, with around 1,000 cases each year. A racial breakdown reveals a slight increase in fatalities among White Americans over this period, while the number of Black fatalities, though decreasing, still remains disproportionately high.
In conclusion, this analysis offers quantifiable evidence of racial disparities in fatal police shootings, highlighting the need for comprehensive reforms to address these issues. It emphasizes that recognizing and understanding the data is a crucial step towards making progress in this area.