INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS AND GROUP PROCESSES Across the Thin Blue Line: Police Officers and Racial Bias in the Decision to Shoot Joshua Correll University of Chicago Bernadette Park and Charles M. Judd University of Colorado at Boulder Bernd Wittenbrink University of Chicago Melody S. Sadler University of Colorado at Boulder Tracie Keesee University of Denver Police officers were compared with community members in terms of the speed and accuracy with which they made simulated decisions to shoot (or not shoot) Black and White targets. Both samples exhibited robust racial bias in response speed. Officers outperformed community members on a number of measures, including overall speed and accuracy. Moreover, although community respondents set the decision criterion lower for Black targets than for White targets (indicating bias), police officers did not. The authors suggest that training may not affect the speed with which stereotype-incongruent targets are processed but that it does affect the ultimate decision (particularly the placement of the decision criterion). Findings from a study in which a college sample received training support this conclusion. Keywords: police, race, bias, weapon, training Inspired in part by high-profile police shootings of unarmed Black men, a flurry of social psychological research has attempted to assess the influence of a suspect’s race on the use of force, specifically in terms of the decision to shoot (Correll, Park, Judd, & Wittenbrink, 2002; Greenwald, Oakes, & Hoffman, 2003; Payne, 2001). Although social psychologists have only recently addressed this question, the impact of suspect ethnicity on police shootings has long been the focus of researchers in other fields of study, particularly sociology, political science, and law enforce- ment. Investigators have consistently found evidence that police use greater force, including lethal force, with minority suspects than with White suspects (e.g., Inn, Wheeler, & Sparling, 1977; Smith, 2004; see Geller, 1982, for a review). Data from the Department of Justice (2001), itself, indicate that Black suspects are approximately five times more likely than White suspects, per capita, to die at the hands of a police officer. One of the most detrimental consequences of police shootings is the upheaval they can provoke. Shootings of a minority suspect may engender a sense of mistrust and victimization among com- munity members and give rise to conflict between the community and police. Weitzer and Tuch (2004) present evidence that mem- bers of ethnic minorities often feel that they are mistreated by the police, even after statistically controlling for factors like personal and vicarious experiences with the law, exposure to the media, and neighborhood disadvantage (see also Sunshine & Tyler, 2003). The implication is that the police are racist and that officers use excessive force with minority suspects. In response, Black people may engage in more belligerent behavior, including “talking back” to police officers, and—in a vicious cycle—this belligerence may prompt more severe use of force by police (Reisig, McCluskey, Joshua Correll, Department of Psychology, University of Chicago; Bernadette Park, Charles M. Judd, and Melody S. Sadler, Department of Psychology, University of Colorado at Boulder; Bernd Wittenbrink, Grad- uate School of Business, University of Chicago; Tracie Keesee, University of Denver. Primary support for this work was provided by a grant from the Russell Sage Foundation. Support for this work also came from National Institute of Mental Health Grant F31-MH069017 to Joshua Correll and National Institute of Mental Health Grant R01-45049 to Bernadette Park and Charles M. Judd. In the interest of disclosure, we note that Tracie Keesee also serves as a commander in the Denver Police Department. We thank Chief Gerald Whitman, the Denver Police Department, Calibre Press, the Denver De- partment of Motor Vehicles, and (especially) the many officers of the Denver Police Department and police departments around the country for their assistance, patience, and participation. We also thank Alinne Barrera, Heather Coulter, and David M. Deffenbacher for their invaluable assis- tance with this research and Myron Rothbart for his many helpful com- ments. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Joshua Correll, Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637. E-mail: jcorrell@uchicago.edu Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2007, Vol. 92, No. 6, 1006 –1023 Copyright 2007 by the American Psychological Association 0022-3514/07/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.92.6.1006 1006