Research finds one in five U.S. police have racial bias: media

WASHINGTON, April 23 (Xinhua) -- U.S. researchers from the University of Miami have studied on the pervasion of racial bias among police and found one in five officers shows high levels of pro-white or anti-black bias, according to a Britain-based digital publication.

The survey of the implicit association test interviewed 4.8 million adults across the United States, including 8,000 police officers.

What is exposed by the survey is "the kind of bias that lies shallow under the surface of decision-making, unknown or hardly noticed by an officer. This kind of bias can happen to anybody, but becomes especially dangerous in the mindset of a person making life or death decisions," said a report published by the Open Access Government website on Wednesday.

When looking at explicit or conscious bias, the researchers found that the number did not change that much, with one in eight officers openly racially biased. "This is the kind of bias that sits firmly on the surface, acknowledged, and accepted," said the report.