The Effect of Police Accreditation on Organization Arrest-Related Deaths: A Comparative Empirical Examination

Fatal police encounters in Ferguson, MO and subsequent events have raised concerns of who is being killed by police. This study focuses on police use of deadly force at the organizational level. This study hypothesized that specific organizational processes, such as CALEA accreditation, would lower an organization’s number of citizens killed. This study utilized FatalEncounters.org data from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2017, aggregated to the organizational level, as well as Annual Reports published by CALEA. This study found that CALEA accreditation neither significantly nor substantially lowered an organization’s number of citizens killed. This study proposes future research ideas involving state accreditation, consent decrees, use of force training, and court interpretations of police use of deadly force.