White Dallas police officers do not disproportionately use force against minorities, contrary to common public perceptions that they target people based on race, a new study has found.

When circumstances such as drug or alcohol use and the officer's tenure are taken into account, differences in use of force between races fade away, according to peer-reviewed findings published in the American Journal of Public Health this week.

Researchers from the University of Texas at Dallas, University of Texas School of Public Health and the University of South Florida analyzed 5,630 use-of-force reports filed by Dallas officers in 2014 and 2015 to see whether the data supports a common view that white officers target minorities.

"We now know that the differences that a lot of people think exist because of these horrific events that we see on TV, video footage, that's not the norm," said Alex Piquero, a UT-Dallas criminology professor who was on the research team.

Dallas police responded to about 1.2 million calls in 2014 and 2015. The majority of those calls didn't result in use of force.

Officers are required to submit reports each time they use force, which includes making verbal commands, threatening to use a Taser and firing a weapon.

The researchers sorted the use-of-force options into four categories:

Verbal direction: Includes making verbal commands and taking a combat stance.

Soft-empty hand control: Includes holding a suspect down, using pressure point techniques and showing or threatening to use a Taser.

Hard-empty hand control: Includes displaying a weapon at someone or locking their joints for compliance.

Intermediate weapon use: Includes use of pepper spray or Taser.

Last year, the Dallas department was about 50 percent white, 26 percent black and 21 percent Hispanic.

In 2014 and 2015, white officers reported using force more often than their peers. About 48 percent of the reports were about white officers using force against someone who wasn't white. In comparison, only 3 percent of black officers used force against someone who is white, according to the study.

But Piquero said the use-of-force data shows there weren't many racial or ethnic differences for officers' use of force on civilians once the context of the cases was taken into account, such as the types of calls officers responded to.

About 48 percent of the people whom officers used force against were under the influence of drugs or alcohol, for example.

Researchers analyzed data broken down by the races of the officers, their tenure and the number of times they reported using force. They also looked at the race and gender of the person the officer used force on.

There are some limitations to the statistics, however. They don't specify all of the factors that contribute to use-of-force incidents, such as the physical fitness of those involved, the crime rate in the area or whether it was dark or light out.

The data also doesn't explore whether the use of force was necessary under the circumstances.

The researchers did not include lethal force in their analysis. That's because the lethal force instances were a "rare occurrence," they wrote in their paper.

In the study, researchers complimented the Police Department for its efforts in recent years to be more accountable and build trust with the public.

"I think we're doing better than we give ourselves credit for," said Jennifer Reingle Gonzalez, one of the researchers in the study. "At least here, in this one place, we've made a lot of progress."

Dallas police shot 23 people in 2012. That year, a riot almost erupted in Dallas' Dixon Circle after police fatally shot a fleeing black man. The Police Department promised to win back Dixon's trust.

It started those efforts by making patrol officers, who answer the bulk of calls from residents, go through reality-based training at least once a year.

Dallas police were involved in 20 shootings, 10 of which were fatal, in 2014. In 2015, they were involved in 11 shootings, five of them fatal.

Last summer, the department started offering classes on racism and bias for its leadership and officers. Recruits also go through an academy that is longer and more in-depth than most other departments.

Dallas didn't see the type of riots that boiled over in Ferguson, Mo., and Baltimore, which police officials and researchers say is because of relatively calm relations between police and the public.

"Is our study definitive?" Piquero said. "Absolutely not. We don't have access to every single factor that could influence officer and citizen interactions. But this is the beginning of something else. Hopefully other people can improve upon our work."

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