Bad Apples Come from Rotten Trees in Policing: The Pursuit of Racial Equity

Recent killings of Blacks by police have renewed a national discussion about race, policing, and discrimination. During the rise of the #BlackLivesMatter movement aimed to combat police brutality, political polarization from Capitol Hill to the NFL has peaked to one of the highest levels in our country’s history. Social media, on one hand, are catalysts for mobilization and activism. On the other hand, they seem to simply be another mechanism to segregate and isolate rather than unify. Simply put, America is grappling with its social and cultural norms, and subsequently social policies that support these changing norms. So, how do we reform policing in America so that everyone is treated equally under the law? Over the past five years, Ray collected interview, survey, social media, and virtual reality data with police officers, activists, and civilians. With an innovative virtual reality decision-making program for law enforcement housed in The Lab for Applied Social Science Research, he shows how implicit and explicit bias contribute to racial disparities in policing. Ray concludes by discussing how a series of evidence-based policy prescriptions and innovative trainings using virtual reality technology can help reform policing in America.

Please find the recording of Dr. Ray's talk on the IGS YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtkmREGvtiM

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