Although ample research has focused on the identification of racial disparities in policing, minimal research has focused on the remediation of those disparities once identified in police agencies. To instigate evidence-based police reform, scholars must begin to consider both the identification and remediation of racial disparities in policing. This dissertation provides a first step in that direction by analyzing detailed data from the Chicago Police Department (CPD) from 2012 to 2015 through the use of innovative statistical models and quantitative techniques to determine which police officers engaged in racially-disparate stop and arrest behavior after accounting for when, where, and under what circumstances they conducted their daily police work. Two sets of policy-relevant questions were then explored to better understand the viability of evaluating actual policy interventions that seek to remediate disparities in policing. The first question has its roots in diversification and seeks to understand whether officers from under-represented identities in policing engage in more racially equitable police behavior than officers with over-represented identities. The second question stems from situational crime prevention and explores whether racially disparate police behavior is influenced by the presence (or lack of) of situational opportunities to contact citizens with racial minority identities. Results showed that racial disparities in stops and arrests were concentrated among 5% of the entire sample of CPD officers. Officer demographics did not consistently predict whether an officer had engaged in racially disparate behavior. Moreover, there was little evidence to suggest that officers from under-represented racial and gender identities engaged in more (or less) racially equitable stops and arrests when compared to their White and male colleagues. However, officers’ racially-disparate behavior was influenced by situational factors related to where they work and who they work with. The implications of these findings for future research and police reform are discussed in detail.
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