Tom Clark - When, Where, and Whom Do the Police Shoot?
The past decade has experienced renewed attention to the use of force by police against civilians. However, scholars have little systematic information about when and where the police use violence. I report on two years' worth of collection of administrative records on police shootings throughout the United States, covering more than 300 cities over 20 years. I describe preliminary results of studies of the use of force and the descriptive analyses that form the basis of a book on police shootings in the United States. These novel data will inform future research and policy debates.
Tom S. Clark is Charles Howard Candler Professor of Political Science. His research focuses on judicial politics, American political institutions, and policing. Prof. Clark's research has been published in leading political science journals such as the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, and the Journal of Politics. He has published three books, including The Supreme Court: An Analytic History of Constitutional Decision-Making (Cambridge University Press, 2019). His first book, The Limits of Judicial Independence, was published in 2011 by Cambridge University Press and was awarded the William Riker Award for the best book on political economy from the Political Economy Section of the American Political Science Association. Prof. Clark received his BA (2003) from Rutgers University, and his MA (2005) and PhD (2008) in Politics from Princeton University. Clark also holds a courtesy appointment in the Emory School of Law. Professor Clark has provided expert witness and consulting services for constitutional litigation in the federal and state courts, including litigation before the U.S. Supreme Court.