The Introduction of Tasers and Police Use of Force: Evidence from the Chicago Police Department / Bocar Ba, Jeffrey Grogger.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ba, Bocar.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Grogger, Jeffrey.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w24202.

NBER working paper series no. w24202

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Introduction of Tasers and Police Use of Force

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2018.

Summary:

In March 2010, the Chicago Police Department changed its Taser policy, issuing the weapons to patrol officers instead of largely restricting their use to sergeants. We used that policy change to obtain difference-in-difference estimates of how the availability of Tasers affected the types of force employed by police, the total number of use-of-force incidents, injury rates per incident, the total number of injuries, and the race distribution of civilians involved in use-of-force incidents. The policy change initially led to a large increase in the use of Tasers, with limited substitution from other types of force. After a period of re-training, substitution between Tasers and other types of force, both greater and lesser, increased. Police injuries fell, but neither injury rates nor the number of injuries to civilians were affected. There is no evidence that Tasers led to a reduction in police use of firearms.

Notes:

Print version record

January 2018.