IOF Workshop: Statistical Challenges in the Analysis of Police Use of Force

Excessive use of force by police is an urgent problem of concern to sociologists, statisticians, policymakers, and the general public. Issues with data quality, processing of unstructured data, tradeoffs between data access and privacy concerns, statistical challenges in analyzing fairness, and other topics have been highlighted as specific areas of concern. In addition, the methodologies used to analyze police use of force have also been extremely varied and results are often incompatible or rely on implausible unstated assumptions. This in-person Ingram Olkin Forum (IOF) workshop is an extension to our earlier online IOF webinar hosted in June 2021 featuring speakers Dean Knox (University of Pennsylvania), Travis Riddle (National Police Foundation), and Robin Engel (University of Cincinnati); the webinar was moderated by Claire Kelling (Carleton College). During the in-person forum, we hope to shed light not only on unique approaches and perspectives in these areas, but also to suggest steps that statisticians and researchers should consider that might aid in a deeper understanding of these issues and provide better evidence to support reform efforts.