Product Proposal

Introduction and Statement of Purpose

In my original work, I was able to go through five years worth of police-involved death
cases in the North Texas area, and the outcome was something I was truly proud of, but I feel
that it can be expanded to show a larger pattern, including comparisons outside of the area. For
this reason, I plan to continue this research so that I can turn it into a full research paper on the
issue that reviews a total of 10 years of police-involved deaths. Additionally, this paper will look
at other existing data and articles written about why police-involved deaths impact some people
more than others, and what effect police-involved deaths have had on law enforcement as a
whole.
I think that, upon its completion, it will be an incredibly useful tool for forensic
pathologists and those that they interact with in the field of law enforcement. Having a paper that
pulls together existing literature on police-involved deaths with an in-depth review of incidences
in the area will contribute essential information that can help form a greater picture of the
problems the phenomenon over police-involved deaths has caused.

Review of Skills and Research

This product pulls together a lot of the research I have done this year, because it involves
reading through and processing autopsy reports. Additionally, this impacts the public perception
of law enforcement and, by association, forensic pathology, which is a topic I have taken a
particular interest with over the course of my research. In terms of skills, this will be a
combination of the research skills I have gained through reviewing different articles for research
assessments. I think that the research and data collection it requires will also teach me a lot about
the field of forensic pathology and its classifications. That portion will definitely be a great
learning experience for me to build off of everything I have already done this year.

Methodology
The lengthiest part of this process will be continuing to catalogue the remaining years of
police-involved deaths and finding and reading through articles for my research. To catalogue
these cases, I will focus on demographics (age, sex, race), causes of death, manners of death, and
toxicology reports. Once the research is complete, I will work on combining all this knowledge
together into a paper that will make sense of all the information I will have gathered on this
topic. To do this, I will integrate the data I have gathered into a more complete analysis of why
police-involved deaths impact certain groups of people more, and how that has affected law
enforcement and the fields associated with it.

Materials
To do this, I will need to have access to the records at the Southwestern Institute of
Forensic Science. Other than that, everything is pretty much digital. I will be using supplemental
articles and a spreadsheet. None of this will be of any cost to me.

Utilization of Higher Level Thinking Skills

In my final product, I will mainly use synthesis and analysis skills. I will synthesize a
great deal of information, fusing Dallas County’s records of police-involved deaths with existing
data on them, and tying in literature that shines additional light on the issue. From there, I will
make heavy use of analysis skills to determine why the data is the way it is. By reading through
existing literature, I will be able to see different ideas about this, and I will analyze the merits
behind each idea to form my own, given the data I have collected.

Conclusions
Overall, I anticipate to see the same trends in police-involved deaths over the main
demographics I have chosen to analyze, but I am interested to see on a greater scale how they
have evolved over time in terms of number. This product can be used to begin to work toward
bettering law enforcement’s community relations. Obviously, this only offers data and theories
about the reasons behind that data, but that can all be applied to create a better policy. Even if
this cannot be immediately applied, the paper will give a great overview of the subject that will
allow individuals near the issue to have one source that can inform them further. My ultimate
hope for this research paper is a possible publication, but I have a lot of work to do before that.