As police forces face scrutiny a year after the killing of George Floyd, new research finds professional codes allow use of force even when lives are not under threat

Police departments in major cities across the world give their officers legal impunity to use lethal force even when their lives are not in danger, according to new research commissioned by the Guardian.

The study by the University of Chicago and its research partners found that not one police department of the cities surveyed had policies that were consistent with human rights guidelines set forth by the UN when it comes to use-of-force policies.

The report involved 48 major US and international cities, many in some of the richest, most democratic countries in the world.

This research reveals that not only are police officers in the US and beyond acting violently with impunity, but that their professional codes allow them to do so. The research comes as police forces are under intense scrutiny in the year after the brutal killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police and the unprecedented wave of uprisings that followed.

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Global Impunity will be published in May and is authored by Claudia Flores, associate clinical professor of law and director of the Global Human Rights Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School; Nino Guruli, staff attorney, UIC John Marshall Law School, International Human Rights Clinic; Brian Citro, human rights lawyer and independent researcher; Mariana Olaizola, fellow and faculty, Global Human Rights Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School; and Chelsea Kehrer and Hannah Abrahams, students, University of Chicago Law School.

Read more at The Guardian