For comments and helpful discussions on prior versions, I am grateful to Alicia Davis, Avlana Eisenberg, Mark Fancher, Jim Greiner, Sam Gross, Louis Kaplow, Randy Kennedy, Anup Malani, Jonathan Masur, David Moran, J.J. Prescott, Eve Brensike Primus, Jon Sacks, Margo Schlanger, Michael Steinberg, Matthew Stephenson, and Kim Thomas, as well as Legal Forum participants and workshop participants at Harvard, University of Chicago, University of Michigan, University of Texas, University of Wisconsin, University of Colorado, and UC-Berkeley. Brian Apel, Grady Bridges, Alex Harris, Avi Kupfer, Linfeng Li, and Andrew Sand provided excellent research assistance.
Statistical evidence plays a central role in litigation, scholarship, and public debates about race and policing. At one level, the statistical picture is clear: people of color in the United States, especially black men, interact with police far more often than white Americans do.
