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Sunday, Jun. 21, 2020

Did a study find that changes in policing after the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson resulted in an increase in crime?

Claire Zimmerman, Gigafact
no

The 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown, an 18 year-old Black man, in Ferguson, Mo., caused significant civil unrest and a close review of police practices in the St. Louis suburb.

Debate has continued on whether the aftermath of the incident created a "Ferguson effect" on the conduct of policing and in turn on crime rates. A 2017 study found that police across the state of Missouri made fewer traffic stops in the year after the incident. "Hit rates," the percentage of searches that found contraband, increased about two percentage points. "Changes in police behavior had no appreciable effect on total, violent, or property crime rates," the study's authors said.

Sources

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