Use of force by police is not as common as the public thinks. The news media all too often fails to say this.

The family of Dexter Reed, who was fatally shot by Chicago police in late March, has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit alleging officers used excessive force and violated his civil rights.

In one respect they are right: the incident does reveal significant misconduct, but by the media – not by the police.

What actually happened on West Ferdinand Street in Humboldt Park is irrelevant or, worse, dismissed or omitted from too many media reports because it doesn’t fit into the bigger picture that America is supposedly dealing with an epidemic of racist, brutal , arbitrary and unjustified “police violence”.

The fact is that use of force by law enforcement is rare — and only results in moderate or severe injury 1.8% of the time, an analysis found. Fatal shootings by police are even rarer. These facts appear to be inconsistent with the media narrative and resulting public perception.

When Chicago’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability, the city’s police oversight agency, released its first report two weeks after Reed’s death, headlines focused on a single detail: that police fired 96 shots during the fatal 41-second encounter.

Almost all of the headlines ignored the fact that Reed, who was reportedly wearing a full-face ski mask, fired at officers first – up to 11 times, injuring one officer, according to COPA. These details barely appeared in initial reporting, and when they did, they appear next to the word “preliminary.” Reed, 26, is often seen in his high school graduation gown and basketball uniform in family photos obtained by the media.

In the days following the release of body camera footage, COPA’s controversial head, Andrea Kersten, gave over a dozen media interviews in which she suggested that officers lied about the reason for the traffic stop. Kersten, whose investigation is ongoing, also released statements to the media suggesting that the number of shots fired by officers was disproportionate and therefore unlawful.

As Chicago’s police chief warned against rushing to judgment against the officers – whom COPA had not yet interviewed – the officers’ previous complaint records mysteriously leaked into the news media. Then Reed’s troubled and violent past came to light – he attacked his uncle with a knife in 2021 and was charged with illegal weapons possession in 2023.

Reed’s case is not an isolated one. All too often, police use of force cases are tried not in court but in the court of public opinion, with the media acting as judge and jury based on incomplete or false evidence.

After the 2014 death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, media outlets reported rumors and half-truths that said Brown posed no threat, raised his hands and told the police officer not to shoot him. Protests and unrest rocked the country and much of the public was outraged by the “unjustified” shooting. Members of Congress and cable TV anchors made the “hands up, don’t shoot” protest gesture. Then-President Barack Obama said the police shooting was both unjustified and racially motivated.

Both the grand jury and the federal investigation later acquitted the officer. But the perception of wrongdoing persisted, so much so that the new district attorney promised during the campaign to bring the officer to justice for Brown’s death. In 2020, the prosecutor concluded that “an independent and thorough review of the evidence” did not meet the standards for murder or manslaughter charges.

The police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 2020 also sparked an outcry based on incomplete – and often false – information. Media reports portrayed Blake, who was shot by police after his girlfriend called 911, as unarmed. The city erupted in flames and Wisconsin’s governor suggested the shooting was unjustified and racially motivated. In fact, Blake was armed with a knife, refused to comply with officers’ orders, and was stunned with a Taser, which had little effect, before picking up the knife a second time, which Blake himself admitted. Two independent investigations — first by the Wisconsin Department of Justice and then by the U.S. Department of Justice — exonerated the officers. Yet the Blake incident is still cited as an example of excessive police force.

The facts and feelings about these cases and many police shootings remain varied – thanks to media reports.

Yet much of the public considers police violence to be an “extreme” or “very serious” problem. Studies and surveys show that the perceived prevalence of police use of force is many times higher than it actually is. These beliefs are based on myths perpetuated by salacious and often misleading reporting. But as psychologists have found for decades, it is harder to dissuade someone from a sincerely believed falsehood than to persuade them to believe it in the first place.

Jason Johnson is president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund and a former deputy commissioner of the Baltimore Police Department.

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