Police don’t target anyone, and research proves it

defamatory — it has the potential to seriously undermine public safety. It hurts policecommunity relations and makes responding to calls even more dangerous for police.

The “police are trigger-happy racists” narrative has resulted, in recent years, in an epidemic of needlessly tragic ambush-style attacks on police officers. Last month in California, officers were setting up a safety perimeter around the scene where one of their fellow officers, 26-year-old female officer Tara O’sullivan, had been shot and killed. The war on police resulted in an angry mob shouting awful things like, “whatever officer got shot needed to be.”

It’s not safe and, even more importantly, the criticism just isn’t true. We don’t target anyone. And you don’t have to take our word for it.

A recent study conducted by Michigan State University and the University of Maryland draws back the curtain and statistically proves that the police racism narrative is a lie. If you believe in science, then you must now accept the research data that conclusively proves white officers don’t shoot minority suspects at a higher rate.

The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is based on data from every police shooting in 2015. The research team literally called every department to determine the race, sex and experience of every officer involved in a fatal shooting.

The study also found that race was not the major determining factor in shootings. Researchers found that shooting victims’ race mirrors crime rates by race. In other words, there are more police shootings where there’s more crime. If you live in an area with lots of white people committing crimes, white people are more likely to be shot.

And what of the allegation that law enforcement officers target unarmed innocent people? The study found that between 90 and 95% of people shot by police were aggressively confronting police or attacking other people. And 90% of those shot by police were armed with a weapon. The researchers’ conclusion: Police shootings where a cell phone is mistaken for a gun are rare. They sure get outsized attention in the media, though.

The good news is that this data will only improve over time. While the university researchers had to manually set up their data collection, the FBI launched a “use of force” initiative to gather this information in real time moving forward. The Fraternal Order of Police, which I help lead, welcomes this study. The FOP also supports more training for officers, better equipment and more officers on the street. All of these things make officers and the community safer.

It’s time to deescalate the war on police. It will make residents safer. It certainly will make police safer. And it will allow everyone to work together to identify and more effectively protect and serve our communities.

We know it. The research confirms it. We don’t target anyone.