Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 5, 2025

Integrating Computerized Linguistic and Social Network Analyses to Capture Addiction Recovery Capital in an Online Community
Published on: May 31, 2019
Quantifying Public Interest in Police Reforms by Mining Internet Search Data Following George Floyd's Death
John W Ayers1, Benjamin M Althouse2, Adam Poliak3
1University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States.
Background:
The death of George Floyd while in police custody has resurfaced serious questions about police conduct that result in the deaths of unarmed persons.
Objective:
Data-driven strategies that identify and prioritize the public's needs may engender a public health response to improve policing. We assessed how internet searches indicative of interest in police reform changed after Mr Floyd's death.
Methods:
We monitored daily Google searches (per 10 million total searches) that included the terms "police" and "reform(s)" (eg, "reform the police," "best police reforms," etc) originating from the United States between January 1, 2010, through July 5, 2020. We also monitored searches containing the term "police" with "training," "union(s)," "militarization," or "immunity" as markers of interest in the corresponding reform topics.
Results:
The 41 days following Mr Floyd's death corresponded with the greatest number of police "reform(s)" searches ever recorded, with 1,350,000 total searches nationally. Searches increased significantly in all 50 states and Washington DC. By reform topic, nationally there were 1,220,000 total searches for "police" and "union(s)"; 820,000 for "training"; 360,000 for "immunity"; and 72,000 for "militarization." In terms of searches for all policy topics by state, 33 states searched the most for "training," 16 for "union(s)," and 2 for "immunity." States typically in the southeast had fewer queries related to any police reform topic than other states. States that had a greater percentage of votes for President Donald Trump during the 2016 election searched more often for police "union(s)" while states favoring Secretary Hillary Clinton searched more for police "training."
Conclusions:
The United States is at a historical juncture, with record interest in topics related to police reform with variability in search terms across states. Policy makers can respond to searches by considering the policies their constituencies are searching for online, notably police training and unions. Public health leaders can respond by engaging in the subject of policing and advocating for evidence-based policy reforms.
More Related Videos
06:42Continuous Theta Burst Stimulation of the Posterior Medial Frontal Cortex to Experimentally Reduce Ideological Threat Responses
Published on: September 28, 2018
14:43A Novel Method for Involving Women of Color at High Risk for Preterm Birth in Research Priority Setting
Published on: January 12, 2018
Related Concept Videos
Surveys
Archival Research
Deindividuation
Milgram's Obedience to Authority
Bystander Effect
Group Polarization