Bring in community to prevent officer-involved shootings

Black Americans are shot and killed by police at more than twice the rate of white Americans despite making up less than 13% of the U.S. population. While we know that most law enforcement officers are dedicated to keeping everyone safe, officer-involved shootings have a devastating impact, particularly on black and brown communities.

Officer-involved shootings and officer killings due to excessive use of force are a stark reality for Black Americans, who are more likely to be shot and killed by law enforcement than their white counterparts. Extensive research suggests that officers are more likely to use force on Black community members than whites, due to racial implicit biases.

In Minneapolis, the police department reported nearly 12,400 incidents of the use of force between 2008 and May 29. Black residents account for about 19% of the population, but were the subject of 63% of officer-involved shootings and police use of force incidents. If we have any hope of solving a problem, first we must acknowledge it.

So it’s imperative we acknowledge that officer-involved shootings are also gun violence and cause a devastating impact, particularly on Black Americans.

That’s why we need to bring our community to the table to prevent officer-involved shootings from happening again. We must ensure our officers are trained in de-escalation tactics to avoid lethal force.

When lethal force is used, we must demand accountability procedures.

This is a complicated problem but there’s a lot we can do with law enforcement as part of the solution. We must do better.

MARILYN MULVIHILL

Ohio Township

The writer is a volunteer with Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.