Race and Policing in America’s Cities: The Role of Mayors

PI: Spencer Piston, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, College of Arts & Sciences
Co-PIs: Chas Walker, PhD Student, Department of Political Science, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences; Nick Henninger-Ayoub, PhD Candidate, Department of Political Science, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences

Scholars of urban politics have long noted the limited power of mayors to address racial inequality. In recent decades, state governments and the federal government have curtailed the policymaking authority of urban administrations while also reducing funding sent to urban areas. White flight and capital mobility, meanwhile, have eroded the tax base necessary for urban governments to assist those who are most in need. But when it comes to policing, mayors would seem to have more opportunities to make progress. As the chief executives of urban government, many mayors hold substantial power—at least in theory—over the police. And it is the actions of police across the United States that are responsible for much racial inequality in a variety of domains; recent Department of Justice investigations in cities across the country have shown, people of color are disproportionately subjected to police killings, beatings, fines and fees, and surveillance.

The problems may manifest themselves locally, but they are national in scope: there are approximately 18,000 different police departments across the US, but collectively they kill civilians at much higher rates than other comparable countries. What is more, racist policing exists in both Southern cities and cities outside the South; cities with white mayors and cities with mayors of color; and cities with Democratic and cities with Republican administrations.

Prior research by Nick Henninger-Ayoub under the auspices of the IOC indicates the vital role that mayoral leadership—particularly strong leadership—can play in advancing reforms aimed to enhance police accountability at the municipal level. Less is known, however, about how mayors themselves conceive of the problems of police racism and violence, which solutions they believe will be most effective in addressing these problems, and whether any of these reforms do in fact result in an elimination of the racially-disparate police practices at the heart of recent protests. This project aims to enhance scholars’ and policy makers’ understanding of this important topic by investigating how mayors conceive of the problems of police racism and violence and they policy solutions they prioritize to resolve them, while also summarizing any existing evidence for the efficacy of those solutions.

See more of our 2021 Early Stage Urban Research Award recipients