Racial bias in 911 calls spreads through multi-agent information channels into the justice system

Evidence

In chapter 2, Dumitru and West shed light on the divisive and confounding issue of community enforcement: when civilians make use of law enforcement because they experience intergroup contact as threatening. In June 2019, the Oregon State Senate passed a bill that would allow individuals who are victims of racially biased emergency calls to sue those who make these calls with discriminatory intentions. The initiative comes almost a year after someone called 911 on Janelle Bynum, a member of the Oregon House of Representatives who was campaigning in her own district. The authors focus on how, during a 911 emergency call, multiple agents interact with each other and transmit information that can have important consequences. They propose that racial bias is spread through these multiple channels, starting with the individual calling and spreading to entities with more influence and power. — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 29

Categorization

• XREF: Mirrors the information-transmission framing in the law merchant chapters — bias propagates through intermediaries much as reputation does in trade. — connects to: Racial determination still structures occupational possibility through indirect coded channels — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 1847