• Home
  • Journals
    • American Political Science Review
    • Perspectives on Politics
    • PS: Political Science & Politics
    • Journal of Political Science Education
    • All Journals
  • Awards
  • Career Paths
  • People
  • Diversity & Inclusion
  • Teaching
    • APSA Educate
  • Tell Us Your Story!
News
  • [ March 1, 2021 ] Meet 2020 DFP Spring Fellow, Sonya Chen; 2021 Applications Open – Deadline March 19 Diversity & Inclusion
  • [ March 1, 2021 ] Prejudice and Tolerance in US Presidential Politics: Evidence from Eight List Experiments in 2008 and 2012 Diversity & Inclusion
  • [ February 26, 2021 ] Meet 2020 DFP Spring Fellow, Samantha Chapa; 2021 Applications Open – Deadline March 19 Diversity & Inclusion
HomeDemocratic EngagementWill the Recent Black Lives Matter Protests Lead to Police Reform?

Will the Recent Black Lives Matter Protests Lead to Police Reform?

August 12, 2020 Democratic Engagement, Political Participation, Race Ethnicity and Politics, RAISE the Vote Comments Off on Will the Recent Black Lives Matter Protests Lead to Police Reform?

On May 25th, a police officer killed George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. Since then, protests, marches, and demonstrations have taken place around the country, bringing renewed attention to police brutality and racial injustice.

A major question among movement participants, supporters, and casual observers is – will these protests lead to meaningful police reform? More broadly, can the protests that have taken place since 2013 as part of the Movement for Black Lives spark infrastructural change? Our research, along with early signs from local, state, and federal governments, provide some indication that the protests will be effective in changing policing practices.

States like Connecticut, Iowa, and New York, as well as cities including Houston, Louisville, and Phoenix have taken steps to reduce police violence or race-based targeting in recent weeks. Legislation is moving through legislative chambers in several other states. Early evidence suggests that legislators are, at least somewhat, responsive to the demands of protesters and movement leaders. These anecdotes also align with our own work and other scholarship, which shows a relationship between movement activity and policy reform.

BLM protests are effective.

Working with an outstanding team of undergraduate research assistants, we created two original data sets. The first data set includes every police reform bill introduced by every state legislature since 2013. The second data set includes every article on policing and police-related protests written in the largest newspapers since 2013. This starting point is significant because it predates the Ferguson uprising of 2014 after the murder of Michael Brown, which sparked heightened focus on police brutality among media and political figures.

There was about four times as much attention on protests last month than at any point during the history of the Black Lives Matter movement. This matters because it signals to legislators the salience of police reform to constituents across the country, which can lead to greater policy responsiveness from elected officials.

Building from prior scholarship, we theorized that media coverage of protests could be a mechanism through which protesters can transmit their preferences to legislators, which may then lead to policy changes. Our findings, published last year, support this hypothesis. Indeed, we find substantial correlation between media attention on policing-related protests and legislative activity on policing. Among a set of major newspapers, the total number of articles related to policing published in 2014 was a dramatic 14 times greater than in 2013. This heightened media attention was sustained in 2015. We found similar spikes in legislative activity, with all 50 state legislatures introducing some form of police reform legislation. Overall, state legislatures passed three times as many police reform bills in 2014 as they did in the previous year, 12 times as many in 2015 and five times as many in 2016.

These findings indicate that protests, and particularly media coverage of protests, can put pressure on political decision-makers to act on the protester’s demands. There are several indicators that the current protests may be even more effective in influencing policy.

The current protests may be even more effective.

First, Michael T. Heaney’s work shows that the media focused on protests in June 2020 60% more than at any other point in the last 20 years. There was about four times as much attention on protests last month than at any point during the history of the Black Lives Matter movement. This matters because it signals to legislators the salience of police reform to constituents across the country, which can lead to greater policy responsiveness from elected officials.

because of the particularly high stakes of participation in these protests amidst the backdrop of a global pandemic, they may bring about greater policy responsiveness than previous protests against police brutality.

Second, Americans are becoming substantially more supportive of police reform policies and BLM more generally. Recent polling finds that a majority of Americans now support BLM and, for the first time ever, a plurality of White Americans support the movement. Roughly 55% of Americans support major changes to law enforcement or to redesign the system completely. Importantly, in an era of intense political polarization, there is common ground across the political spectrum on several police reform policies.

Third, as LaGina Gause argues, the costs of participating in these protests are higher due to the COVID-19 crisis, and the grievances expressed over rampant police brutality are compounded by concerns over burgeoning unemployment and a worsening economy. Gause argues that elected officials may be more responsive to the interests of group who have to overcome considerable barriers to express their interests. In sum, because of the particularly high stakes of participation in these protests amidst the backdrop of a global pandemic, they may bring about greater policy responsiveness than previous protests against police brutality.

Of course, it’s important to note that many police reform policies passed in recent years are merely symbolic. Indeed, many of the bills in our database involved token gestures such as increasing community service of officers. Even the substantive reforms, such as body camera policies and building public databases, are often not congruent with the institutional transformation advocated for by the Movement for Black Lives. Nevertheless, participation in the current protests appears to be an effective method of shaping public opinion and bringing about policy changes that better hold police departments and police officers accountable for their use of force.


Davin Phoenix and Maneesh Arora are guest contributors for the RAISE the Vote Campaign. The views expressed in the posts and articles featured in the RAISE the Vote campaign are those of the authors and contributors alone and do not represent the views of APSA.

Davin Phoenix is an associate professor of political science at the University of California, Irvine, researching how race interacts with various spheres of U.S. politics to shape the attitudes, emotions and behavior of both everyday people and elites. His research explores how race influences the emergence of anger, pride and hope in response to politics, how protests and media narratives on policing have influenced state legislative activity post-Ferguson, and how religious views shape the policy preferences and political behavior of people of color. His book The Anger Gap: How Race Shapes Emotions in Politics is the winner of the 2020 Ralph J. Bunche Award by the American Political Science Association.

Maneesh Arora is an Assistant Professor of political science at Wellesley College and an affiliate of the Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy at Brown University. His research focuses on race and ethnicity politics, public opinion, and political behavior. His articles have been published or are forthcoming in Political Research Quarterly, Politics Groups and Identities, and Journal of Education and Social Policy.

Share Your Research on Black Lives Matter, REP, and the Politics of Protest

  • #BLM
  • #RAISEtheVote
  • Police reforms
  • political institutions
  • protests
  • racial attitudes
Previous

Meet MFP Spring Fellow, Tricia Huynh, University of California, Los Angeles

Next

Resource of the Week: Public Policy Project

Related Articles

2018 Elections

Racial Liberalism: Connecting Protest and Electoral Politics Today

July 9, 2020 2018 Elections, 2020 Elections, Civic Engagement, Race Ethnicity and Politics, RAISE the Vote, Uncategorized Comments Off on Racial Liberalism: Connecting Protest and Electoral Politics Today

The year is 2020, not 1968. There has been extensive commentary about the protests over the recent murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police suggesting parallels to the black insurgency of the late 1960s, including […]

2020 Elections

Will Trump & Congressional Republicans Benefit from White Racial Attitudes in 2020?

July 22, 2020 2020 Elections, Civic Education, Civic Engagement, Race Ethnicity and Politics, RAISE the Vote, Student Voting Comments Off on Will Trump & Congressional Republicans Benefit from White Racial Attitudes in 2020?

Was the election of 2016 the new normal? Or will Donald Trump’s successful campaign formula of racialized appeals and anti-establishment messaging be forgotten with the GOP reverting to its previous form after his presidency? On […]

2020 Elections

Mobilizing Students through Faculty Engagement: Join the Faculty Network for Student Voting Rights

September 1, 2020 2020 Elections, Civic Education, Civic Engagement, Student Voting, Voter Education and Engagement, Voter turnout Comments Off on Mobilizing Students through Faculty Engagement: Join the Faculty Network for Student Voting Rights

By Sabrina Medler As a young voter, and recent Political Science graduate from Stanford University, I understand the kinds of obstacles that impact students’ ability to vote. My goal is to help boost the youth […]

Follow Us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube

The Democracy 2020 Project

  • Call for Submissions: Undergraduate Poll Worker Essay Contest

    November 9, 2020 Comments Off on Call for Submissions: Undergraduate Poll Worker Essay Contest
    Undergraduate Poll Worker Essay Contest The American Political Science Association’s (APSA) Electoral Assistance Task Force invites students who served as election workers in polling places to submit brief essays reflecting on the experience.  In preparing [...]
  • APSA Educate Call for Materials: “Teaching the 2020 U.S. Election”

    November 5, 2020 Comments Off on APSA Educate Call for Materials: “Teaching the 2020 U.S. Election”
    The 2020 U.S. election presents unique challenges and opportunities for political science students and educators. In response, the American Political Science Association is seeking teaching resources focused on the 2020 U.S. election, the presidential transition, and the incoming Biden-Harris administration to be featured on Educate – APSA’s new [...]
  • What You Should Know about Election and Voter Fraud

    November 2, 2020 Comments Off on What You Should Know about Election and Voter Fraud
    What You Should Know about Election and Voter Fraud The purpose of the APSA Election Assistance Task Force is to foster broader knowledge and understanding of non-partisan election assistance, including resources on non-partisan voter mobilization organizations, [...]

Recent Posts

  • Meet 2020 DFP Spring Fellow, Sonya Chen; 2021 Applications Open – Deadline March 19
  • Prejudice and Tolerance in US Presidential Politics: Evidence from Eight List Experiments in 2008 and 2012
  • Meet 2020 DFP Spring Fellow, Samantha Chapa; 2021 Applications Open – Deadline March 19

FOLLOW @APSATweets

My Tweets

Copyright © 2018 I American Political Science Association

Read previous post:
Meet MFP Spring Fellow, Tricia Huynh, University of California, Los Angeles

The APSA Minority Fellows Program, established in 1969, aims to increase diversity in the discipline of political science. The Spring...

Close