Ed Byrnes, PhD, a professor of social work at Eastern Washington University, continues his six years of research on race and law enforcement contacts by joining with the NAACP and Spokane County Sheriff’s Office in researching civilians’ race and arrests.
In Byrnes’ most recent research brief, he finds, “civilians who are Black or Native American were arrested at a percentage that is greater than their representation in the general county population. This disproportionality was at a level beyond what random chance would predict for Black civilians.”
Byrnes began his research work with the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office before the killing of George Floyd. More information about Byrnes’ study, and his partnership with the NAACP and the Sheriff’s Office, can be found in the recent Spokesman-Review article below.
