From Barcelona Firefighter to Columbia Sociology Professor

Not many professors began their careers as firefighters, but Gerard Torrats-Espinosa, an assistant professor of sociology and member of the Data Science Institute, did. Torrats-Espinosa worked for five years for Barcelona’s fire department before coming to the U.S. to pursue a master’s degree in public policy. That master’s degree developed into a PhD in Sociology, and that PhD led to his current career as a Columbia professor. Torrats-Espinosa has recently published two papers on crime and policing, his current research areas. Columbia News caught up with him to discuss his research and his path to where he is.

Your latest paper looks at how police violence reduces trust in the police among Black residents. Why did the question interest you?

In this paper, Jonathan Ben-Menachem, a graduate student in the Sociology department, and I explored how a high-profile incident of police violence, the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha in 2020, impacted trust in law enforcement among Black residents. What we found is that, in the aftermath of these events, trust in the police declines significantly—particularly among younger Black adults and those with prior arrest or incarceration experiences. This is important because trust in law enforcement is fundamental to public safety and the well-being of communities.

This question interested us because it touches on a deeper issue: how systemic inequities in policing shape long-term community relations. We often hear about the immediate consequences of police violence, but the lasting effects on trust are less visible and more complex to measure. We were particularly interested in understanding whether these declines in trust differ based on personal experiences, such as having had negative interactions with the criminal justice system in the past. We think that our study helps better understand how police violence perpetuates cycles of distrust, which in turn can undermine efforts to improve public safety in marginalized communities.

What does your other recent paper on exposure to crime and racial birth outcome disparities examine?

There have been many discussions lately about whether crime is up or down. In the past five to 10 years, some cities have experienced a reversal in the downward trends that began in the early 1990s, but in general, we are living through incredibly peaceful times when it comes to neighborhood violence in American cities.

My previous work has examined how lower crime rates have increased the economic mobility of low-income households and contributed to closing racial gaps in education. The idea is that when neighborhoods become safer, it creates a more conducive learning environment and leads to more economic opportunities in the neighborhoods where the most disadvantaged groups live.

While much research has focused on how declining violence affects human capital accumulation and labor market success, less attention has been paid to its impact on early life outcomes. Together with my colleague Nicholas Mark from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, we examined how the crime decline influenced a crucial life stage: birth. We found that lower violence in American cities has led to improved birth outcomes in communities of color, with fewer babies born at low birth weight.

Does your work look for solutions to these problems, or are you more focused on producing empirical research?

I hope and think that the body of research the social science community is building helps inform policy decisions.

For example, one of the papers I co-authored with Patrick Sharkey, my mentor in graduate school, and Delaram Takyar, another graduate student at the time, looked at the role that community, nonprofits, and neighborhood organizations played in the decline in violence of the 1990s and 2000s. We showed that the growth in neighborhood organizations focused on improving neighborhood life through things like after-school programs and neighborhood revitalization initiatives led to a significant decline in violence.

In the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd, that paper got a lot of attention as people thought about ways to decrease community violence without relying exclusively on the police. It was encouraging to see policymakers and advocacy groups eager to use insights from the research that we produce in the social sciences.  

Which other projects are you working on now?

I’m also working on other projects that study aggressive policing and racial bias. One project looks at the use of no-knock search warrants by police departments, a form of police violence that received national attention after the killing of Breonna Taylor in 2020. Despite being one of the most dangerous and invasive police tactics, the consequences of their use have been under-researched. My study analyzes data from Chicago, focusing on the racial disparities in exposure to these police interventions and their mental health impacts on minority residents. I find that Black neighborhoods experience no-knock search warrants at rates seven times higher than white neighborhoods, leading to elevated levels of anxiety, depression, and PTSD in the Black population. In a separate study, I also examine how this and other militarized policing tactics impact social cohesion and trust in institutions in the neighborhoods that experience them more frequently.

The second project, co-authored with Sam Donahue, a PhD student in the sociology department, and accepted by the American Journal of Sociology, examines how the residential environments of police officers influence their behavior on the job, specifically looking at how homicides near officers’ homes affect their likelihood of using force. We found that when homicides occur close to the homes of white officers, they are more likely to use force in encounters with Black pedestrians for the following week. This project was particularly interesting because it linked complex administrative records, enabling a research design that generated causal estimates of how significant events near officers’ homes, such as homicides, influence their behavior while patrolling and interacting with citizens.

What led you to this line of work from your previous career as a firefighter in Barcelona?

I’ve always had an interest in public service, and I wanted to do some sort of service after college. I studied civil engineering as an undergraduate, but there wasn’t a direct path to public service with that degree. However, many cities in Europe have engineers and architects on their firefighting teams because they have some knowledge of buildings’ structural makeup and integrity that can come in handy in a fire. Becoming a firefighter allowed me to use the technical knowledge I acquired in college in a profession with a clear public service component.

I did that for five years and then came to the U.S. for a master’s degree in public policy. I thought I was going to go back to Barcelona to work for the city in some policy analysis capacity. But as soon as I took my first sociology class I was hooked, and I never went back. While I am no longer a public servant in strict terms, aspiring to produce research that raises awareness about societal issues and helps inform public policy still feels like a form of public service.

How do you like living in New York?

Yes, I like it very much. New York is an inspiring city with a vibrant population constantly advocating for change—whether in criminal justice reform, addressing systemic inequalities, or creating safer, more just neighborhoods.  I’m also glad to be part of its great running community.

Do you have any favorite food spots in the area?

I recently discovered the bagels at Wu & Nussbaum. They’re delicious.