Police Department Comparisons
Task
1. Open the Police Scorecard and scroll down to the list of cities within the U.S. and their
corresponding “scores.” It will look like this:
Click “Show More” at the bottom of the list to see the full list of cities.
2. Ask yourself, where do these data come from? Who collected them? How were they
collected? And, what does the overall score mean?
3. Select and review the scorecards of two cities of interest. Click on the city name and
review the data that is presented.
4. Respond to the prompts on the following page.
a. To fill in the worksheet, click file > make a copy to edit the worksheet.
5. Submit your filled in worksheet as a Word Doc or PDF on Canvas.
Participation Assignment
Police/Sheriff Department Comparisons
Department 1
Department 2
Department Name
Department Name
Baltimore
St. Louis City
Department’s Overall “Score”
Department’s Overall “Score”
37%
26%
Considering the department’s score, as well
as the specific sources of data provided,
what strikes you as noteworthy about this
police department?
Considering the department’s score, as well
as the specific sources of data provided,
what strikes you as noteworthy about this
police department?
The extremely low police funding is
noteworthy about this police department.
Police Budget Cost per Person and Officers
per Population are almost the lowest
nationwide. Also, even though police violence
was mediocre, the arrest rate for low level
offenses was extremely high. This seemed to
directly influence police accountability, which
was so low.
The most obvious thing was that police
violence was rampant in addition to the
extremely high arrest rate for low level
offenses. Deadly Force per Arrest and Racial
Disparities in Deadly Force were frequent,
which seemed to directly influence police
accountability, which was even lower than the
Baltimore Department.
What similarities and differences do you see across both departments?
(Discuss in at least 3-4 sentences)
Similarities:
-Police funding is insufficient, especially for police budget cost per person and police presence
/ over-policing(Officers per Population).
-Police accountability is low and there are an excessive amount of complaints. All types of
complaints (misconduct, excessive force, discrimination, criminal misconduct) are frequent.
-Arrest rate for low level offenses are so high, which is a possible explanation for why police
accountability is low.
Differences:
-Police violence was found more in St. Louis City Department. While the Baltimore
Department’s police violence remained along the 50th percentile, St. Louis Department’s
police violence was about 15th percentile.
-There were slight differences between police funding. St. Louis City Department had fairly
low misconduct settlements and fines, while the Baltimore Department had a high misconduct
settlement and fines.
What do these data suggest about the legitimacy of the police in these jurisdictions?
(Discuss in at least 3-4 sentences)
The data suggests that the legitimacy of police in jurisdiction is questionable. There is concrete
evidence regarding police accountability and police violence. The low police accountability
rate means that people do not trust the police and therefore increase hostility. On the other
hand, high police violence suggests that the police may be given too much force and the force
is being abused. This contradicts with the fundamental idea of jurisdictions, which is to protect
people not to harm them.