Calls to 911 Emergency in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, fell by about 20 percent—22,00 to be exact—following one of the most violent police assaults in Milwaukee history, an episode that has implications for cities across the country as well.
According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:
That dropoff in 911 calls suggests the incident eroded trust and sharply damaged the relationship between the police and neighborhoods that often count on them the most, according to the study.
Controlling for crime and other factors, researchers found that 911 calls dropped by approximately 22,000 citywide over the following year, with the effect much higher in black neighborhoods …
As 911 calls dropped, the city experienced a surge in homicides later in 2005, leading the authors to suggest the lack of reporting of crimes by citizens may have contributed to the spike in killings.
The researchers found another drop in 911 calls in predominantly black neighborhoods after the beating of Danyall Simpson by a Milwaukee police officer. And they also found evidence that an incident of police violence in another city might have contributed to a drop in 911 calls in Milwaukee.
The vicious beating of Frank Jude back in 2004 by off-duty police officers—they weren’t even on the clock when they attacked Jude and thus couldn’t claim it as justified—“rocked” the city and seven officers were convicted of federal civil rights violations in the case. The researchers in this study “examined more than 1 million 911 calls in Milwaukee between 2004 and 2010.” What they found even shocked them.
“Over half of the drop in calls — 56% — happened in predominantly black neighborhoods, which account for 31% of all neighborhoods. Desmond said he was shocked when he first saw the size of the drop.
"That is a huge effect and it symbolizes that these are not isolated incidents because they don’t have isolated effects, they have community-wide effects and those effects can actually make the city less safe by driving down crime reporting and thwarting public safety efforts," he said.
The new findings run counter to a theory that has been advanced to explain the recent spike in homicides in some cities — that the increase is fueled by police becoming timid which emboldens criminals. Coined the "Ferguson Effect" in reference to unrest after the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., the theory holds officers have become passive out of fear they will be investigated for uses of force.
In the Jude study, researchers found data suggesting people withdraw from the system after an incident of police violence. Papachristos said the study shows that police violence and other misconduct hurts officers' ability to work with communities and may result in a deepening of so-called "legal cynicism" — the idea that police are either unable or unwilling to help — within communities. That dynamic can perpetuate crime and distrust.
The Harvard study, “Police Violence and Citizen Crime Reporting in the Black Community,” was written by Matthew Desmond, Andrew Papachristos and David Kirk.