REU Site: Studying Race and Policing in the Complex Social Interaction Lab

Washington State University, Pullman WA

Investigators

Abstract

This project is funded by the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Sites program in the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences. This REU provides both scientific and societal benefits. In terms of science, this project engages the scientific method examining the role of race in how interactions between police officers and community members unfold. In terms of societal benefits, this research will help generate understanding of police interactions, with a specific focus of understanding why police interactions vary and how they can be improved. This program imparts the knowledge, skills, and abilities to engage in scientific research to REU participants, while demonstrating how such research can improve community prosperity and welfare by affecting positive change in police-community interactions. In addition, this project generates research that will increase the safety of community members and officers involved in police-community interactions. Lastly, this program supports education and diversity by recruiting students from diverse backgrounds who will be embedded into a collaborative and interdisciplinary research environment where they will develop research skills which improve their ability to make meaningful contributions to society. The Complex Social Interaction Lab REU trains undergraduate researchers, especially, but not limited to, those from underrepresented populations, on data-oriented social science approaches to the study of race and policing. The site emphasizes the recruitment, training, and participation in research of promising students to address three interrelated projects: race and police use of force, 2) race and de-police escalation tactics, and 3) race and procedurally just policing. The methodological approaches focus on coding video and audio data, basic to intermediate quantitative methods, and advanced applications in GIS, time-series analysis, data analytics, and data visualizations. Additionally, this project reinforces the importance of methodological rigor and analytical creativity in generating valid and reliable measures and interpreting those data by way of the objective coding of body worn camera footage, making use of such footage as a novel source of data for the study of policing. Students will have the opportunity to use these methods to generate innovative data and the opportunity to publish peer-reviewed research. The goals of this project are to 1) recruit promising students, 2) provide real world research opportunities that integrate theory, methods, and application, 3) increase knowledge regarding policing and the race, 4) develop professional skills, and 5) prepare students for graduate school and for other career opportunities. This site is supported by the Department of Defense ASSURE program in partnership with the NSF REU program. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.