Social Media Representations of Law Enforcement within Four Diverse Chicago Neighborhoods

Abstract

The perception of excessive use of force by law enforcement towards minorities has become an increasing focus of attention in the national media and public consciousness. With greater ability to record conflicts using smartphones and dissemination of videos via social media, the public may more readily judge the circumstances of law enforcement interactions. The purpose of this study was (a) to understand the general sentiment about law enforcement on social media among communities of color in Chicago, (b) to see if local or national incidents of police conflicts with people of color were mentioned, and (c) identify key themes within these social media posts. Publicly available social media posts were collected from four ethnically and socioeconomically diverse neighborhoods in Chicago. Using a five-person team and keyword searches, the posts were reviewed for content and abstracted if they pertained to law enforcement. They were then analyzed in stages of open, axial, and selective coding methods. Eight main themes were identified. These included the following: (a) law enforcement participation in the community, (b) law enforcement activity in the neighborhood, (c) posts regarding criminal activity, (d) immigration, (e) political protests against police, (f) African American men and law enforcement, (g) sympathy with Sandra Bland case, and (h) #Blacklivesmatter. There appears to be chasm of trust between law enforcement and communities of color. Our findings may help inform law enforcement, public policy-makers, and social workers in their efforts to better address these issues and to institute policies and interventions that not only bridge this gap but also strengthen and empower these communities.

Keywords

police brutality racial disparities African American Hispanic social media Twitter #BlackLivesMatter qualitative research

Researchers have long documented narratives of distrust between African Americans, Latinx communities, and the police, particularly following incidents of police misconduct (e.g. shooting of a community member). In an age of ubiquitous social media, many of those conversations have moved from the kitchen table or local community meeting to social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. However, there is a dearth of research that elucidates the social media representations of law enforcement across diverse communities that experience high rates of violence.

Social media is uniquely placed to see prevailing attitudes (specifically African American and Latinx) towards police particularly after incidents of police misconduct (Bonilla and Rosa 2015). These beliefs from African American and Latinx populations regarding law enforcement are important to recognize as they have historically been viewed as trivial within the mainstream media and society at large. Countless scholars have identified several factors that influence citizens’ positive and negative attitudes towards law enforcement (Graziano and Gauthier 2019; Weitzer 2015; Wheelock, Stroshine, and O’Hear 2019). These factors include race, face-to-face encounters, and stories from friends, neighbors, and family members (Weitzer 2015). In reviewing the corpus of the literature, Wheelock et al. (2019) report that analogous to other demographic characteristics, race has been the most dependable predictors of opinion toward law enforcement. Research consistently shows that African-American residents report more negative interactions with police and their civil rights being violated than their White counterparts (Epp, Maynard-Moody, and Haider-Markel 2014; Peffley and Hurwitz 2010). They also found that Latinx support for the police is typically lower than Caucasian residents yet larger than African-American residents. Before highlighting how negative attitudes towards police are shared online, it is essential to examine the longstanding distrust towards police by communities of color due to experiences of discrimination. Historically, police have been perceived as using violence disproportionately, and their use of excessive force has often been hidden within communities of color. In 2015, nearly 25% of the largest police departments in the United States had reports of deadly encounters where the victims were exclusively identified as African American (Mapping of Violence n.d.). Such incidents have resulted in the growing lack of trust between the public and the police in recent years, which is explained by a 2015 United States Gallup Poll, stating that trust in law enforcement is at its lowest point in since 1993 (Jones 2015). Additionally, we see that mistrust between Chicago residents and police is greater than the national average. Almost 60% of low-income Chicago-area community residents say they know of individuals who have been treated unjustly by law enforcement, versus 45% of low-income community citizens nationwide (Crabtree 2019). Distrust and experiences of discrimination have greatly influenced police perceptions within communities of color, and we will explore how social media has created an additional avenue for residents to share their experiences of police misconduct that were once hidden in their own communities. Throughout urban cities, conversations around race and police were historically reserved within neighborhood establishments such as beauty salons and barbershops. These businesses continue to provide a space where strangers and friends can be found purposefully engaging in present-day political, social, and cultural discussion (Mills 2005). The advent of social platforms such as Facebook and Instagram have created an additional space where conversations regarding race and police brutality can now be discussed on a global level (**Carney 2016). These social network expansions have correlated with prolific social media usage for communities of color, with 69% of African Americans and 70% of Latinx individuals engaging with some type of social media platform (Perrin and Anderson 2019). Social media has played a huge role in helping communities of color organize across geographies and has offered many an opportunity to take action and have their voices heard and validated (Carney 2016). Not only do communities of color utilize social media as a tool to discuss current events but Patton, Macbeth, Shoenbeck, Shear, and McKeown (2018) recognized these platforms as spaces to express grief and sadness, and to mourn the death of a loved one or close friend as well.

There is a myriad of literature regarding (a) African American and Latinx perspectives on police and (b) their increased social media usage, but there remains little research analyzing how perceptions of law enforcement are expressed online, before and after local and national incidents of police wrongdoing. With a greater understanding of how African Americans and Latinx populations use social media, we hypothesize that increased availability and engagement of social media in communities of color allows for expressions of emotion and/or thoughts regarding conflicts with law enforcement, both personal and collective.

In this study, we focus on Chicago in 2015 because the city saw a 13% increase in both homicides and shooting victims that year (Gorner 2016). We decided to concentrate on the summer months of June–August because that is when the majority of the city’s crime occurs, disproportionately impacting African-American and Latinx communities (Allaham and Marx 2017). Furthermore, there were many highly publicized national incidents of excessive use of force by law enforcement on African-American citizens leading up to Summer 2015. Such incidents include the deaths of Walter Scott, Eric Harris, Tamir Rice, Akai Gurley, and Eric Gardner. We hypothesize that increased availability and utilization of social media in communities of color might allow for expressions of emotions or thoughts regarding these conflicts with law enforcement. The aim of this study is to contribute to the limited existing literature available, and by comparing publicly available social media posts from the summer of 2015 across four racially and socioeconomically diverse Chicago neighborhoods, we aim to discern depictions of and value judgments of law enforcement.

Methods

Institutional Approval

The University of Florida College of Medicine Institutional Review Board approved and exempted this research proposal. No direct contact with groups or persons was required for this work.

Data Sources

We contracted with a location-based social media search and discovery platform (www.geofeedia.com) to obtain the publicly available social media posts for four ethnically and socioeconomically diverse Chicago neighborhoods. This platform was able to abstract, archive, and export public social media posts for specified locations from a single summer in Chicago between June 1, 2015 and August 31, 2015. We chose that three-month time frame because summers are typically busy for tourism and social media, and have higher monthly violent crime incidents. Only publicly available posts were gathered; no private content was accessible. When users had deleted their posts, they were coded as broken links. The media platforms collated included Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Vimeo, YouTube, and other popular sites. Posts were categorized according to the neighborhood of origin and stored in four spreadsheets using Microsoft Excel, along with hypertext links to the original posts. Posts in Spanish were translated in English by a member of the research team fluent in both languages. Data were stored in a password-protected, firewalled mainframe. Finally, a trained research librarian performed popular media searches to identify news clips regarding law enforcement and police-related shootings during the study period. Keywords related to these news clips were cross-checked with our dataset of social media posts.

Chicago has an overall population of approximately 2.7 million people; the most common racial and ethnic groups Caucasian (32%), African American (32%), Hispanic (28%), and Asian (%) www.statisticalatlas.com) The four neighborhoods chosen for the study were Little Village (85% Hispanic), Pilsen (80% Hispanic), South Shore (95% African American), and Englewood (99% African American). We deliberately selected neighborhoods with large African American and Hispanic populations, because we were particularly interested in assessing public opinions of law enforcement among communities of color. These neighborhoods have the following reported crime rates (Average yearly crimes/1,000 population): Little Village, 121.9; Pilsen, 59.4; South Shore, 134.6; and Englewood, 188.3 (Renthop 2019).

We want to acknowledge that Geofeedia was later linked to ethically concerning practices, including providing law enforcement agencies with social media data of protestors and activities, in order to increase surveillance of these groups (Leetaru 2016). To the best of our knowledge, our data was not shared with the authorities, but we understand the concerning nature of these partnerships and will be vigilant about our own data stewardship.

Data Analysis

We used a grounded theory approach to analyze the data. Grounded theory is an inductive process that allows researchers to conceptualize the latent patterns and themes of narrative or other non-quantitative data. (Glaser and Strauss 1967)

The first step was to review a total of 84,740 social media posts from all four neighborhood for content, both narrative text and visual depictions, including pictures, memes, videos, and emojis. Using the Search function in Microsoft Excel and keywords (“cops”, “police”, “Chicago Police Department,” etc.), posts were scanned for any potential relevance to law enforcement. These were then abstracted and tabulated. This subset of law-enforcement related posts were then reviewed using an extensive keyword search to determine context. We then reviewed the posting transcripts with a four-person analysis team; validation of context and meaning was by consensus. After exploring various meaning and patterns found in the data, we established a final data set. For each dataset of neighborhood posts, we had one abstractor and one checker. Our analysts were ethnically diverse, multilingual, and ranged in age from early twenties to late twenties. We first analyzed posts from topics like “weather”, “New York”, and “exercise” and attributed tone to these posts, to establish interrater reliability, which demonstrated >90% concordance.

Using the law-enforcement related posts, we began the second phase of analysis that involved axial coding, comparing interactions embedded within the initial codes while comparing interactions to any larger concepts that emerged. Our process was to extract the data, develop a codebook with relevant thematic words, and then use consensus and alternative codes to validate the themes. We first simply attributed “positive”, “negative”, or “neutral” to the tone of the post, based on written and visual content (see Table 1). We then looked for common themes that emerged from postings. Consensus was reached in team meetings using a modified Delphi approach when interpretations of interview data were not aligned. The final codebook was checked for validity and reliability through member checks (presenting interpretations to other team members). This multi-stage data analysis process was completed in 2.5 months. Finally, our results were shared with community volunteers from each of our four Chicago neighborhoods to determine agreement and/or bias.

Table 1.

Examples of Posts Categorized by Tone and Content.

Tone of the Post	Examples
Positive	“This just in participants of the first ever #Englewood Police/Youth Baseball League practice and indulge in recreation peacefully in #Englewood. The youth practise for their upcoming kick-off June 24th at Hamilton Park.” “Beautiful day at #ChicagoPoliceDepartment 3rd District Senior #Safety Health and Resource Fair” “Now Happening: #Englewood youth of the #Englewood Police/Youth Baseball League are working hard to get ready for the big kick-off game (parade, opening ceremony, press conference and celebration) on June 24th at Hamilton Park (3pm). Will you be there to support our us and see the #GoodInEnglewood in action ?”
Neutral	“Please contact the police if you’ve seen this missing child “ “The police bikers are back for the summer. Have they been on your block?”
Negative	“They send other races who have never been in the ghetto to the hood with a chip on their shoulders to police us who are adults but constantly are disrespected by cops who are suppose to serve and protect us” “It breaks my fucking heart to hear all these talks about lost loved ones due to police brutality #blacklivesmatter” “African Americans are more likely to be detained, arrested, searched, and INTIMIDATED”

Results

We reviewed a total of 84,740 posts from the four neighborhoods in the three-month study period (see Table 1). Instagram was the most popular among users, followed by Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr. South Shore and Englewood—predominately African-American neighborhoods in Chicago—had more law enforcement relevant posts than Pilsen and Little Village (see Table 2). Englewood had the highest number of negative posts of all the neighborhoods, and 70% (38/54) of its posts had a negative tone or sentiment towards law enforcement. By contrast, 49% (20/41) of law-enforcement related posts from Little Village were negative, as were 49% (22/45) from Pilsen, and 52% (29/56) from South Shore (p=0.03) Across all neighborhoods, the numbers of positive posts were few (see Table 3). We also found that some posts seemed to be coming from groups or businesses, instead of individuals. In general, the group or business posts were less frequently negative than individual posts (Table 3: Pearson’s chi-2, p<0.001)

Table 2.

Posts Categorized by Tone and Content.

Neighborhood in Chicago	Number of Police-related Posts	Positive Posts	Neutral Posts	Negative Posts
Englewood	54	4	12	38
Little Village	41	5	16	20
Pilsen	45	10	13	22
South Shore	56	9	18	29

Table 3.

Posts Categorized by the Source: Group or Business Posts Versus Individual Posts.

Neighborhood in Chicago	Total Police-related Posts	Individual Posts	Group or Business Posts	Can’t Determine the Origin
Englewood	54	42	11	1
Positive	4	1	2	1
Neutral	12	3	9	-
Negative	38	38	-	-
Little Village	41	29	12	-
Positive	5	2	3
Neutral	16	11	5
Negative	20	16	4
Pilsen	45	36	9	-
Positive	10	6	4
Neutral	13	9	4
Negative	22	21	1
South Shore	56	40	13	3
Positive	9	4	4	1
Neutral	18	9	8	1
Negative	29	27	1	1

Key Themes

Law-enforcement participation in the community

In 2014, the city of Chicago instituted programs like youth baseball league and others at local schools in an effort to change the perception of law enforcement and help build trust with communities that had a fractured relationship with police. In the three-month study period, four posts mentioning these actives were abstracted from the Englewood neighborhood and were absent from the other three neighborhoods.

“Now Happening: #Englewood Youth Baseball League and Police are working hard to get ready for the big kick-off game”

“Today we participated in a youth-police discussion group with students of the CPD-Kennedy King College Anti-Violence Summer Program led by NOBLE members Officers Daliah Goree and Claudette Knight. Afterwards, we took NOBLE and its “The Law & Your Community” law literacy program to the airwaves at WKKC, 89.3 fm. #thelawandyourcommunity #radio #youth #citizensoftodayandtomorrow #justicebyaction #youthpolicerelations #bepartofthesolution #noble #noblechimetro”

“Dr.Terry Mason presented at the #ChicagoPoliceDepartment Senior Health and Safety Fair #CookCounty”

Law-enforcement activity in the neighborhood

These posts used matter-of-fact in language and were notable for their brevity when compared to other posts containing negative sentiments.

“The police bikers are back for the summer. Have they been on your block?”

“Honor them #the100clubchicago #fallenheroes #police #fireman #milkovichphoto @Chicago, Illinois”

“I was walking around downtown tonight and some random guy tries to pick me up. “Can I talk to you for a minute? Can I get your name?” I respond with “Get the fuck away from me.” He then follows me three blocks and into two different 7-11s. Then he tries to pay for my slurpee. Eventually, I call CPD and report him for harassment. They show up and he bolts. They drive me to a safe Romeo free train station and there are no consequences for him. #mood #pissed #feminist”

Posts regarding criminal activity

People in all four neighborhoods posted frequently about shootings, incidents of assaults, and robbery on their block or road closures due to police investigations.

“Assault on 7000 BLOCK OF S SANGAMON ST, Chicago, IL (via http://X): Shooting/Stabbing. CPD

“Shooting on 5800 BLOCK OF S GREEN ST, Chicago, IL (via http://X): Shooting/Stabbing. CPD

Immigration

In Pilsen and Little Village, posts dealt with the issues of immigration and the immigration policy, Deferred Action for Childhood arrivals (DACA). These neighborhoods are largely comprised of Hispanic and Latino populations. Chicago, as a whole is home to many more immigrant communities and a sanctuary city for undocumented immigrants. These social issues were highlighted equally in posts about a gallery exhibit on immigration as well as in posts commenting on the policy developments.

“Deportable Aliens Exhibit #imundeportable #inmigrantedelavida #aliensatthemuseum LaMigra #deportarpaio #rodrigolarazendejas”

“A few days ago, immigration director Jeh Johnson declared himself to be facing 3 billion dollars more to be able to exercise deportations and other responsibilities. Under the Obama administration, they have deported more than 2 million people. Many only because of traffic infractions and other small issues.”*

For one user, the issue of immigration and migrant rights was inextricably linked with police brutality as seen in this post from 2015, where a social media user mentioned a local incident in 2014 of police brutality against Dominique Franklin Jr., who died two weeks after police used Taser to subdue him.

“#PilsenFest #BBUTheir shirts speak: “The Chicago Police Department killed Dominique Franklin,” “United for racial justice & migrant rights,” “Gang.” #DominiqueFranklin #racialjustice #migrantrights”

* - Posts translated from Spanish to English

Political protests against police

People in these four neighborhoods used social media to post about political protests and marches organized across the city.

“GOOD #WORK being done in this city. This is EVERYONE’S Fight!8/29/15 March On #CHICAGO!MARCH AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY#blm #blacklivesmatter #sandrabland #mikebrown #unjust #policebrutality #ihaveadream#chicity #chiraq #love #peace #protest”

“March for Community Control of Police”

“Marched in the rain today with Rasmea! #stoppolicecrimes”

“From a march through Englewood after police shot man. My aunt grew up here. Wednesday night.”

“Over 1,000 people participated in yesterday’s #StopPoliceCrimes rally for civilian oversight of #Chicago Police Department. Here, protestors stage a die in at Washington and State streets. #massmovement #blacklivesmatter #policestate #protest #photojournalism #onassignment #CPD #blackamerica #BLM #chicagoshots #mychicagopix #iwalkchicago #thisischicago #flippinchi #latergram”

African-American men and law enforcement

Posts from Englewood and South Shore consistently showed the strained relationship between these communities of color/neighborhoods and law enforcement. Chief complaint and source of discontent stemmed from the number of times being pulled over by Chicago Police department to the manner in which these stops were conducted. Posts expressing these concerns were lengthy, often contained profanity and language that expressed a distrust of police and frustration with the power dynamic that left them feeling violated instead of protected.

“Pulled over three times in a day..#CPDK”

“Fuck the #CPD for giving me a ticket, hoe ass mad I had them outside the car for 30mins.They bitch ass called 2 sergeants & 3 more detective cars before I got mad then I got tired of arguing so I exited the vehicle. They wasted damn near an hour & 8 officers for this good ass ticket. BITCH I AM CONTESTING IT!!”

“Fuck the cops”

For one user, these traffic and investigatory stops, and the conduct of law enforcement were about racial profiling and mistreatment of minorities.

“African Americans are more likely to be detained, arrested, searched, and INTIMIDATED”

In another post, the lack of familiarity and understanding of these distressed neighborhoods patrolled by cops was seen as the source of this racial tension.

“The higher powers of the city think it’s easy as bringing in more police but all it does is broaden the divide between the residents and law enforcement. They send cops of other races who’ve never been to ghetto, to the hood with a chip on their shoulders to police us who are adults but constantly are disrespected by cops who are suppose to serve and protect us”

Race was explicitly brought up in an Instagram post by a user who viewed a video about an incident from Mckinney, Texas in 2015, where a Caucasian law enforcement officer wrestled a 14-year-old African American girl wearing a bikini, to the ground and dragged her across grass at a pool party. Another Caucasian officer at the scene pulled his gun on a group of African American teenagers to control them.

“McKinney #BlackChildren #WhiteCops #StopPoliceBrutality”

While viewing the same incident online, another user suspected whether or not a disciplinary action against the officer will be taken. It was further speculated that the department would support the officer’s actions.

“To attack the child in that manner and pulling his gun out. He’s dangerous. But I expect their police union will still defend him”

Social media users also took to the medium to express their views on police and race relations in America. One user alluded to America’s past as the reason for police brutality.

“Ku Klux Kops “

Another person used Emmett Till’s death anniversary to reflect on the issue and to question if things have really changed for African Americans and other minorities in this country since then.

“Today marks the 60th anniversary that Chicago teen Emmett Till was lynched at 14 yrs old for allegedly whistling at a white woman while visiting his relatives in Mississippi. It would seem as though 60 years ago was a long time but of course time is relative. In the sixty years, since Emmett’s tragic death how much has really changed in our nation in which police brutality and violence against black lives and other marginalized groups persist? - a brooklyn soul #foodforthought”

In the following post, a social media user was concerned with the negative perception of African Americans created by the media and stereotypes associated with the racial group since slavery.

“I bet you don’t know that grow in Chicago especially Englewood. Let the media tell it we produce nothing worth mentioning to society. We all aren’t savages or the ills of society just are more frequent in this poverty stricken place. I know of plenty of hidden gems and great people from this place. We’re all trying to find out a solution to the violence and madness.”

Sympathy with Sandra Bland case

During the analysis, we saw little to no social media posts mentioning local incidents of law enforcement shootings in local news. However, there was significant activity on all social media channels after the news of Sandra Bland’s death broke and the dashcam video of her arrest was released. There was an outpouring of grief and compassion for Sandra Bland. People from all neighborhoods posted pictures and video clips of her and her family, and wrote posts expressing their grief and condolences.

“#SandraBland’s mother, Ms. Geneva Reed-Veal. I met her and I couldn’t stop crying. She had to know that her baby reminded me of every black woman I know, that spirit is there. She blessed me yesterday with words only a mama would say, similar to the things my mother would probably tell me. #SandyStillSpeaks”

While expressing grief, some users internalized this loss and realized that this could easily have been a member of their own family or they themselves could have been harmed in this manner.

“This brings tears to my eyes this morning. This could’ve been me or one of my daughters. I can totally relate as Mothers will fight for their children. #sandrabland#thiscouldbeme #blacklivesmatterWe must fight together! She can’t do this alone, but she will die trying. #motherslove”

“#SandraBlandSpeaks. Her murder could have been our Grandmother, Mother, Sister, Aunt, Cousin, Friend, etc.”

Several posts demonstrated a need to process this news and understand what happened with Sandra Bland. Some expressed suspicion at the cause of death and the events reported, while others were angry at the growing list of victims of police brutality and demanded justice for her.

“I was trying to stay quiet but that’s a good question! Things that make you think #SandraBland #ijs #whathappenedtosandrabland #sayhername”

“#sandrabland did not commit any criminal acts! Why was she treated as if she did? I’ve never known or seen a big garbage can to be in a jail cell. There’s definitely some bullshiggity going on with this story. So many questions!! She said nothing harmful or threatening to the officer when stopped. It’s very disturbing how easily they can get away with foul play.”

“Please don’t forget about Sandra me and her the same age. She lost her life for know her rights. Please help her family get justice. She didn’t deserve to die over traffic stop. This break my heart #sandrabland #justiceforsandrabland”

“There’s Pain in truth. But understanding in it as well. There is NO EQUALITY in AMERICA!! Justice comes ONLY WHEN FORCED!!!!! To think, to expect, or even assume anything different puts you at a disadvantage. Only one way to achieve it. . . AND IT AINT GON BE QUICK, PRETTY, CONVENIENT, nor COMFORTABLE!!!! Until then. . . Stories like #sandrabland #ericgarner #freddiegray #mikebrown WILL REPEAT THEMSELVES. May God Bless #sandrabland and her family. May she #RestInPeace May #GodsWillOverrule the wicked.

“Motherfuckers NEVER loved us!! This is a damn shame. Went to Texas for a Job ended up in jail hung to death? Suicide yeah, riiiiiiiiiight?! #sandrabland”

“Now that I have your attention #SandraBlandwasMurdered #SadTruth”

“Stop killing black women & girls.”

#BlackLivesMatter

There was an enormous support for the Black Lives Matter movement among all the neighborhoods we surveyed. The use of the hashtag was ubiquitous in posts discussing episodes of police brutality to showing support for local businesses to commenting on everyday matters.

“I volunteer to go with Stephen Colbert as he returns to SC to take down the confederate flag. @StephenAtHome #BlackLivesMatter”

“Support black businesses = support black lives.

#blackbussiness #smallbusiness #blacklivesmatter #blacktivist”

“Man, this situation is heavy on my heart! #sayhername #sandrabland”

“#RestInPeaceSandraBland #JusticeForSandraBland #BlackLivesMatter

“What charge do educators have in telling the story of #sandrabland? #sayhername #sandyspeaks #policebrutality #police #blacklivesmatter”

“#kimberleerandle #SandraBland #BlackLivesMatter”

Discussion

Our results suggest that minorities in Chicago used social media to express a range of emotions that include anger and awareness of what they felt were dehumanizing interactions and experiences with law enforcement. Chicago residents are also aware of police violence, and this is reflected in their activism. While these perceptions are neither remotely new nor unique to Chicago, there may be circumstances that intensify the discord with law enforcement. With racially segregated failing schools (Gowins 2014), a high rate of unemployment among people of color (U.S. Department of Labor & Bureau of Labor Statistics 2016), and high rates of firearm-related violence (Isackson 2012) that has much of Chicago fragmented, people in communities like the ones we surveyed, underscore racial and socioeconomic disparities. Episodic reminders of gang violence in their neighborhoods and witnessing police brutality in online videos are not only a psychological stressor (Chaney & Robertson 2013; Geller, Fagan, Tyler, and Link 2014) but also trigger larger social questions.

Scholars have likened law enforcement’s use of excessive force as being analogous to lynching (Embrick 2015) and quite a number of posts in our study alluded to America’s racial past, and these unlawful and discriminatory police practices were perceived as a natural extension. In this milieu, experiencing and/or witnessing such repeated incidents could lead to distrust in the police as well as distrust in healthcare institutions that routinely work closely with law enforcement (Liebschutz et al., 2010). For example, an article by Desmond, PapachristosI, and Kirk (2016) found that city residents, especially African Americans were less likely to call the police, including calls to report violent crime following publicized reports of police violence. Results from their study showed a net loss of more than 20,000 911-calls following news of police brutality. These findings highlight the importance of understanding the online and offline expressions of marginalized communities as institutional mistrust can lead to a decrease in collective efficacy.

This erosion of trust can leave these communities more isolated, vulnerable to gang violence and retaliatory violence, and less inclined to seek help and protection, and co-operate with authorities. This narrative is further shaped and grounded in their lived experiences when we examine the posts that mention the past victims of police brutality while discussing the Sandra Bland case—a list that seems to be etched in their social consciousness. It also suggests that simply adding more police to neighborhoods, particularly those from different backgrounds that community members, may foment further distrust. An alternative would be to engage communities of color and train all law enforcement in cultural awareness and respect for all individuals.

While much of our results in this paper have focused on African Americans, the fear of deportation has the Hispanic and immigrant community in Chicago living in fear of the authorities. Several posts from our predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods also voiced support for the Black Lives Matter movement, tacitly proposing that the issue of police brutality and immigration policies are not framed by only color and race, but is an issue of exploitation of the power imbalance that exists between the police and policed. Of note, one of our African-American community volunteers suggested that the #BLM posts were not inherently anti-law enforcement, but instead reflected African-American pride. Our other African-American participants and researchers felt that the #BLM posts generally reflected both African-American pride as well as anti-police sentiments.

Limitations and Future Research

The study is not without limitations. We studied four neighborhoods that predominantly consisted of African Americans and Hispanics, and therefore our findings may not be generalizable to other Chicago communities. While we used an extensive keywords and emoji dictionary to analyze these posts, digital vernacular used can be very complex, dynamic, and nuanced, and we may have not captured it completely. Furthermore, a combination of words and emojis can have vastly different interpretations than the user intended and what we understood. For example, it was not always clear whether a personal altercation with authorities served as an impetus for the user to vent or comment. Due to a shorter study period, we were limited in studying these posts and perceptions longitudinally to see if they were momentary in nature or were deeply held beliefs.

As mentioned earlier, Geofeedia was later linked with unethical practices regarding surveillance. While the field of social media data usage was and is clearly in its infancy, and we did not use these data for any commercial purposes, we must remain circumspect and transparent about our use of Geofeedia-collected data. As academics continue to use technological tools such as artificial intelligence to obtain social media data, it is important that we make sure these tools have no doubts regarding their fairness, accountability, and transparency (Meira 2017). When these values are not included in the data collection process, marginalized populations are may be left with the burden of “false positive” and have to prove they are not who or what the algorithm incorrectly identifies them to be (Bousquet 2018). We have gone to great lengths to ensure that the social media data collected is not shared with law enforcements agencies or anyone using punitive and criminalizing methodologies. It was and still is very important for us to include community domain experts during the analysis process. We will continue to employ their skills and expertise to help address future ethical concerns and to ensure our research is valid, accountable, and transparent to the communities we collaborate with.

Implications and Recommendations

Despite these limitations, to our knowledge, this is the first study to date looking at perceptions of law enforcements on social media using a qualitative approach. The study shines a light on the discontent felt by minorities in their daily interactions with law enforcement. More research studies—ethnographies, case studies, and interviews—are needed to better understand the nature of these conflicts. Our results show that social media in marginalized communities provides a space for minorities to express their collective anger, frustration, and grief with law enforcement. In order to repair this adversarial relationship, a much more concerted effort by law enforcement is needed. While the Chicago police department has taken some steps to this end by organizing events in marginalized communities (The Chicago Citizen n.d.), a more frequent and sustained outreach is desired to build trust. Research shows that law enforcement can utilize social media as a tool for community engagement. In one study, researchers found that departments who use social media to provide “agency-related information” and “community interactions” were more likely to engage citizens (Dai, He, Tian, Giraldi, and Gu 2017). Such posts include topics regarding police recruitment, promotional ceremonies, traffic updates, and school information. Similarly, these scholars found that posts aimed to interact with the public were found to be successful in community engagement. Law enforcement officers also have the opportunity to engage with citizens offline as well. For example, the city of New Haven, Connecticut, saw a 65% decrease in homicides from 2011 to 2014 after police adopted a community policing approach and used some of their time to walk their assigned neighborhood (Fields and Emshwiller 2015). Another approach that may strengthen relationships with the neighborhood is to partner with community-based organizations, such as Moms Against Senseless Killing, Build Chicago, and Becoming A Man, etc., that may serve as a bridge between law enforcement and these communities, encouraging dialogue. Research has showed that individuals who are made aware of their implicit biases are more motivated to implement unbiased behaviors (Blair 2002; Lane, Kang, and Banaji 2007), and cities like New York have launched implicit bias training workshops for their police department to help officers de-escalate emotionally charged situation without the use of deadly force (Baker 2018). Lastly, just like gun violence, the issue of police brutality should be seen as a public health issue and potentially preventable. Chicago and other cities may learn from the successes in Richmond, CA (Early 2015), that took the following initiatives: (a) incentivizing and encouraging cops for community engagement, (b) hiring a diverse police force, (c) partnering with activists, and (d) promoting the use of non-lethal weapons, resulting in lower police-related violence as well as lower violent crime rates.

The racial bias of increased policing and law enforcement-related violence suffered by minority communities mirrors the structural racism present in all aspects of everyday life, from education to employment to healthcare disparities, thereby leading to systematic disempowerment of these communities (Jee-Lyn Garcia and Sharif 2015). Complex problems rarely have an easy or a simple solution. While addressing the issue of police brutality by calling for a systemic reform of the police department is one part, empowering communities is another. Our findings underscore the fact that Chicago residents from our study neighborhoods are highly active, engaged, and socially aware, with a complex understanding of the challenges, and who are creating a call to action.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Marie Crandall

Author Biographies

Aparna Sodhi, BA, is a Post-Baccalaureate premedical student at Northwestern University. Her research has focussed on issues facing the marginalized neighborhoods in Chicago, particularly in the area of gun violence. She is interested in reducing healthcare disparities and improving patient care.

Nathan Aguilar, BA, is a PhD student at the Columbia University School of Social Work. His research interests include: gun violence interventions, gangs and technology.

Deanna E Choma, BS, participated in the work while she was an undergraduate student at the University of Florida. She will be starting Dental School at the University of Pennsylvania this fall.

Jackie Marie Steve, BA, has been working as a freelance digital marketer for ten years after graduating from the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. She enjoys researching the changing landscape of social media and its impact on community issues.

Desmond Patton, PhD, is is an associate professor at Columbia University School of Social Work. His research examines the relationships between youth, gang violence, and social media; how and why violence, grief, and identity are expressed on social media; and the real-world impact these expressions have on well-being for low-income youth of color.

Marie Crandall, MD, MPH, FACS, is a professor of Surgery and associate chair for Research at the University of Florida College of Medicine Jacksonville. Her research focuses on firearm injuries, geographic information systems in trauma, and racial and socioeconomic disparities in acute care surgery.

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