Bias-based 911 calls often bypass racial intent and evade legal remedy.

Evidence

Given the lack of constraints placed on 911 callers (no requirement of perceived threat and anonymous reporting), civilians may see little to no risk in calling 911 when they find themselves in a potentially threatening situation. It is this lack of accountability that led the Oregon State Senate to pass the bill discussed in the introduction to this chapter; they wanted to encourage civilians to be more thoughtful when making these types of calls. However, the bill does come with the caveat that the victim must be able to prove that the call was motivated by racial bias. Thus, this type of intervention might be useful only in those cases in which it is clear that the call was racially motivated. However, considering the findings we reviewed above, it is possible that in many of these situations, the reason behind the call can be explained by factors more complex than explicit racial bias, and additional research on this topic is needed in order to understand more concretely what these factors are. — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 278

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law: A Definitive Look at…, 278