The People and the Police: Oakland 1974 (Part 2)

While the prevalence of police brutality in the United States is not comprehensively documented, statistics on the use of physical force by law enforcement are available. For example, an extensive US Department of Justice report on police use of force released in 2001 indicated that in 1999, “approximately 422000 people 16 years old and older were estimated to have had contact with police in which force or the threat of force was used.” Statistics on police brutality are much less available. The few statistics that exist include a 2006 Department of Justice report, which showed that out of 26556 citizen complaints about excessive use of police force among large US agencies (representing 5% of agencies and 59% of officers) in 2002, about 2000 were found to have merit. Other studies have shown that most police brutality goes unreported. In 1982, the federal government funded a “Police Services Study,” in which over 12000 randomly selected citizens were interviewed in three metropolitan areas. The study found that 13.6 percent of those surveyed claimed to have had cause to complain about police service (including verbal abuse, discourtesy and physical abuse) in the previous year. Yet only 30 percent of those who acknowledged such brutality filed formal complaints. A 1998 Human Rights Watch report stated that in all 14 precincts it examined, the process of filing a complaint was “unnecessarily difficult and often intimidating.” Police brutality can be associated with racial …
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