Disparities in Police Award Nominations: Evidence from Chicago

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-2020

Abstract

This study provides evidence of racial and gender disparities among police officers by examining a key metric of internal recognition: departmental award nominations. Using a novel dataset on Chicago police officers, we find that black (female) officers are significantly less likely to be nominated compared to their white (male) colleagues, even after controlling for cohort, age, experience, and key policing activity metrics such as arrests, uses of force, and complaints. Further, the discrepancy is likely not a result of statistical discrimination on the part of nominators, as the minority nominations gap grows among higher award percentiles.

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