Fatal police violence near reservations: Interpreting risk in context

By Jerreed D. Ivanich

Police violence is a public health concern in the United States (1). Much of the prior work on police violence has established a firm foundation of racial inequity in police violence, specifically for Black and Latino populations (2). Additionally, most of the work has focused on urban settings (3). These foci have contributed, to some degree, to the lack of attention on police violence among American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) populations. The PNAS paper “Heightened risk of fatal police violence in and around reservations for American Indian and Alaska Native Peoples in the United States” by Schwartz et al. (4) begins to fill this important gap and increases visibility of police violence for AIAN peoples living on or near reservations. They highlight that one in 1,800 AIAN men in the United States will die from fatal police violence, which is an elevated risk compared to the national male lifetime risk of one in 2,000 (5). Beyond documenting this important disparity, Schartz et al. highlight the role of place, history, and governance structures in shaping risk.