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99 Wash. U. L. Rev. 65 (2021-2022)
Crime and the Mythology of Police

handle is hein.journals/walq99 and id is 71 raw text is: CRIME AND THE MYTHOLOGY OF POLICE SHIMA BARADARAN BAUGHMAN* ABSTRACT The legal policing literature has espoused one theory of policing after another in an effort to address the frayed relationship between police and the communities they serve. All have aimed to diagnose chronic policing problems in working towards structural police reform. The core principle emanatingfrom these theoretical critiques is that the mistrust ofpolice among communities of color results from maltreatment, illegitimacy, and marginalization from the law and its enforcers. Remedies have included police training to encourage treating people with dignity, investing in body cameras and other technology, providing legal avenues to encourage constitutional action by police, and creating a voice for community members to express their needs. These preeminent policing theories do not fully address a core cause of police mistrust and disaffection of communities of color and the poor. To address these symptoms of policing failure requires a consideration of the purpose and function of police. At the core of police function is a misunderstanding ofpolicing that this Article terms the police myth. The police myth is the twofold belief that a primary function of police is crime control and that police solve crimes with regularity. Reliance on the police myth may provide societal comfort but has made it difficult to address rudimentary policing failure. Without understanding what police actually do and their relationship with crime, it is impossible to reimagine policing. This Article seeks to understand the myth that in large part contributes to the anomie between police and communities of color, but also creates a structural Associate Dean of Faculty Research and Development, Presidential Scholar and Professor of Law, University of Utah College of Law. Special thanks to Monica Bell, Jamelia Morgan, John Rappaport, Jocelyn Simonson, Tracey Meares, Carissa Hessick, Alec Karakatsanis, Rachel Harmon, Andrew Ferguson, L. Song Richardson, Sandra Mayson, Paul Robinson, Barry Friedman, Elizabeth Job, L. Song Richardson, Benjamin Levin, Seth Stoughton, Jenny Carroll, Christopher Slobogin, Ronald Allen, Paul Gowder, Sheila Bedi, Daniel Epps, Andrew Ferguson, Cathy Hwang, Brandon Garrett, Ben Grunwald, David Ball, Chad Flanders, Jenia Turner, Cecilia Klingele, Noah Smith-Drelich, Jon Ben-Menachem, Justin Murray, Jennifer Laurin, Eric Miller, Christopher Griffin, Paul Cassell, Paul Heaton, Russell Gold, Adele Quigley-McBride, Merit Hofer, Vikrant Reddy, and Anna Roberts for invaluable assistance and contributions to this piece. This piece benefited from presentations and participation at the Duke Criminal Empirical Conference, University of Texas, University of Arizona, and Northwestern University Law School. I am grateful for research and editorial assistance from Jessica Morrill, Zachary Scott, Jacqueline Rosen, Kenneth Peterson, Rebekah Watts, Nathan Jackson, Angela Tumbow, Valeri Craigle, Melissa Bernstein and Ross McPhail. I am grateful for the hard work of the Washington University Law Review, especially Maya Kieffer, Bailey Crawford, Jake Keester, Mili Nadipalli, Emily Yonan, and Rosalie Swingle. 65

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