Police officers treat Black and white men differently. You can hear it in their tone of voice [View all]
https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2021-07-16/cops-treat-black-and-white-men-differently-you-can-hear-it-in-their-tone-of-voice
Scientists who analyzed the body camera footage from more than 100 police officers have found a subtle but clear pattern: During traffic stops, officers spoke to Black men in a less respectful and less friendly tone than they did to white men.
This disparity in treatment is not only real, but may help to fuel a cycle of mistrust between police and the Black community, the researchers reported this week in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
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Compared with white residents, Black community members were 57% less likely to hear the officer use words such as sir, maam and thank you and 61% more likely to hear words such as dude and bro and commands such as hands on the wheel.
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For the new paper, Camp and his colleagues focused not on what officers said, but how they said it.
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The researchers then asked more than 400 people a diverse group of white, Latino, Asian and Black volunteers to listen to the clips and rate the officers tone of voice.
Across the board, clips of officers speaking to Black men got lower marks for friendliness, respectfulness and ease than those of officers speaking to white men even though the listeners were not aware of the drivers race.