Justice

What If the Police Apologized?

It probably would not be enough, but could be better than nothing.

Photo by Unseen Histories on Unsplash

When governments make mistakes and especially when citizens demand it, they sometimes apologize to earn back legitimacy. The government of Japan has apologized to South Koreans for their mistreatment of South Korean civilians during World War 2. The United Kingdom apologized for its role in the international slave trade. As president, Bill Clinton apologized for the internment of those with Japanese ancestry in the United States. However, there are scarce few examples of apologies in policing, and apology’s role in correcting police racial inequity has been especially unexplored. Apologizing for policing’s history may help legitimize policing among African Americans, given that it has historical roots in enforcing slavery and racism.

Photo by Thomas de LUZE on Unsplash

African American people think that the police are less legitimate than white people do, and that creates operational problems for policing. It would be wrong to say that no potentially legitimizing police policy reform came about from George Floyd’s murder. Cities and states across the country have modified their use of force policies, banned chokeholds, and reorganized their departments to assign clients to the most appropriate public servant. Some point out that taking human biases out of the equation would likely result in more equitable policing. Even when some departments enact difficult reforms, others will not and will still hold substantial enforcement power.

Activists, scholars, and pundits across the country have made suggestions for police reform to reduce racial conflict. Many have been tried over time, at varying levels of fidelity to original reform concepts, but racial conflict surrounding policing has remained. No policing reform mentioned can account for the delegitimizing effects that the racist history of policing has today. However, apologizing does address policing’s history and that approach has not been evaluated.

To understand apologies’ salience for police racial inequity, and how to negate police illegitimacy among African Americans arising from that source, I conducted an experiment that was recently published in The American Review of Public Administration. The experiment used two groups. Both groups read an introduction to a hypothetical midwestern police department. Both read a statement from an activist in that community responding to a racial policing controversy and describing the racist history of policing. Both read a promise of future community policing from the police chief in the community. The treatment group then read an additional statement from the police chief apologizing for the racist history of policing.

At best, results were mixed. Those who read the supplemental apology saw the department as slightly more legitimate than those who did not, but the differences were so small as to be insubstantial. Overall, while apologies for policing’s racist history may provide some small legitimizing effects to policing today, those effects simply will not be enough to propel policing to full legitimacy among African Americans.

I collected qualitative comments from respondents, who pointed to reasons that a supplemental apology might not improve policing’s legitimacy among African Americans much. People essentially wrote that actions speak louder than words. One wrote that “I would like to believe that this police department is sincere. I would say that only time can tell, but it sounds very positive. It is a start and if we don’t start an action, we will never see the results.” They seemed to appreciate the reform and apology but didn’t seem to be fully convinced of the department’s legitimacy. Another communicated the same theme, writing that “I think coming out with an apology and a plan is great. However, I think Black people are tired of that. We want real change.” One person made the same point especially clearly, arguing that “talk is cheap, and bullshit runs a marathon.”

Today’s policing seems to be in line with policing’s past, and apologizing will not be enough to overcome the current illegitimacy that arises from policing’s past. African Americans can observe the conditions of policing, their lives, and other African Americans to come to reasonable conclusions about their views of police legitimacy. It is vitally important to improve police legitimacy among African Americans, both for moral and operational purposes. But policy reform implementation will likely be necessary for maximum legitimacy, and apologies will likely not be enough.