Fatal Police Shootings and Community Health in the United States: A Nationwide Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract The current study estimates the association between fatal police shootings and community health in U.S. census tracts, exploring disparities in shootings and their relationship with health outcomes across different demographic and socioeconomic contexts. We validated and linked open-source fatal police shootings data (2014–2018) with CDC health estimates (PLACES 2021 release) for all U.S. census tracts. Using mixed-effects linear models, we found that fatal police shootings were significantly associated with negative health outcomes and poor health status at the census tract level. Additionally, the prevalence of fatal police shootings and the strength of their associations with health outcomes were stronger in census tracts with higher levels of concentrated disadvantage and larger minority populations. The type of incident (based on characteristics of the person shot and killed) was not significantly associated with the health measures examined. These results suggest that fatal police shootings warrant consideration within the broader context of social determinants of health. Addressing these shootings’ associations with ill health requires comprehensive efforts that consider racial and ethnic health disparities following exposure and the unequal access to socioeconomic resources.