The Prevalence and Mental Health Impacts of Militarized Policing in American Cities

Gerard Torrats-Espinosa, Assistant Professor, Sociology, Columbia University

8417 William H. Sewell Social Sciences Building
@ 12:15 pm
https://www.irp.wisc.edu/2025-spring-irp-seminar-calendar/

The killing of Breonna Taylor in 2020 brought national attention to no-knock search warrants, a policing practice that allows law enforcement officers to enter premises unannounced. Despite being among the most dangerous and aggressive policing tactics, no-knock search warrants and forceful residential police raids remain under-researched. Building on the literature on the social costs of aggressive policing, this talk will present findings from a multi-city study analyzing all forceful residential search warrants executed over a decade by three large US urban police departments. Discussion will include evidence of racial and ethnic gaps in neighborhood-level exposure to forceful residential search warrants, then focus on the community-level mental health effects of such policing practice. Findings contribute to a growing body of literature highlighting the unintended and adverse consequences of aggressive policing in communities of color and among disadvantaged populations.