UC Merced Undergraduate Research Journal

This research paper analyzes the budgets of police departments who have the highest and lowest numberof criminal charges. It questions if whether or not police department budgets affect the number of police brutality cases and accountability. With the information presented, law enforcement is conflicted knowing their policies and approaches needto be changedto hold the police accountable. Some law enforcement officials may argue they are simply enforcing what they were trained to do. Evidence is presented in this paper on gun ownership, criminal charges, demographicsin police departments, the victim’srace, the name of police officers involved in multiple police shootings resulting in the death of a civilian, and the amount of police shootings in known cities. In order for there to be less police brutality and more accountability in law enforcement, training needs to be focused on de-escalation methods, civilian payouts must use money from the budget of the police department responsible, and independent investigations have to be overseeing the officers' police brutality cases.