Bureaucratic Responsiveness in Times of Crisis: The 2020 Mass Protests and Police Department Social Media

In 2020, American cities experienced mass protest after fatal police violence against Black Americans. Did police address these protests differently after the murder of George Floyd or the protests in their communities? Did that response vary depending on the racial or ideological makeup of their constituents? We link policing protests and Facebook posts from about 4,000 American police departments to investigate differences in agency responses to protest. Departments posted more about protest after Floyd's death, especially in those communities that also had a policing protest. Republican cities were less likely to post about protests, but racial demographics are not associated with more or less protest posting. Our results are consistent with past research on the durable influence of partisanship on policing attitudes and suggest that protests are a valuable way to alter rhetoric in local communities, but only once there is sufficient national pressure and scrutiny to do so.