Police officers communicate in a friendlier, more respectful way to white drivers than Black drivers during routine traffic stops, and these routine interactions can erode police-community trust, a new study found.
Study author Nicholas Camp, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan, has previously found that officers use less respectful language with Black drivers, but the peer-reviewed study published this week in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology reveals differences not in what police say but how they say it.
“Racial disparities in cues as subtle as an officer’s tone of voice can shape citizens’ trust in the police and alter their interpretation of subsequent encounters,” researchers wrote.
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