Reexamination of Multi-level Representation and Critical Mass: The Roles of Black Leadership and Its Relationship With Street-Level Officers in Police Killings

Abstract

The study’s goal is to examine the multi-level representation in the context of cooperation and support between black police chiefs and street-level officers. Another goal here is to re-examine and propose different critical mass models in policing. The study uses police killing data from 2014 to 2017 in the United States. Using multi-level modeling techniques, the existing critical mass model, which assumes a single threshold, is not supported. Instead, the study finds that the mutual support model is supported, showing that street-level black officers need support from the black chief, while the black chief also needs further support from street-level officers. Simultaneously, it finds that the presence of a black chief shifts the threshold of street-level representation to a lower level, showing a close relationship between mutual support and critical mass due to a similar mechanism. The findings suggest the importance of police leadership.