Research, apps address police bias

As police bias becomes better documented by the U.S. Department of Justice and other agencies, experts and activists are developing research projects and providing resources that better address the faults of the justice system. The following is a roundup of some of that work.

Lab studies assumptions

At UNC, psychology professor Keith Payne is researching racial bias when it comes to the misidentification of weapons.

His laboratory performs tests in which people are asked to identify an object on a computer screen as a weapon or a harmless object.

Each object is preceded by the picture of a random face.

“There is a tendency to mistake harmless objects for weapons when they are primed or preceded by a black face,” Payne said.

His research has been made particularly relevant by several high-profile instances of police killing young, unarmed black men — sometimes under the assumption that the black man had a gun.

In Cleveland in November, a police officer shot a 12-year-old black boy, Tamir Rice, who was holding a toy gun. A caller to the 911 operator said the toy was “probably fake,” according to The New York Times.

A released video depicts officers driving to the scene and shooting Rice within seconds.

Payne’s research includes a version of the test in which participants respond at their own pace.

“In the other version, they had to respond within half a second on each trial. In the self-paced condition, accuracy was very high regardless of race,” the study states. “However, participants detected guns faster in the presence of a black face.”

Payne said people almost never make errors when they are responding very slowly.

“But if you require people to respond faster, so they’re making split-second decisions, that’s when you see the bias come in,” he said.

‘Project Implicit’ tests bias

The tests administered by Project Implicit work in a similar manner.

Project Implicit, a nonprofit collaboration between a variety of universities, allows people to test their thoughts and consciousness — including bias.

The racial bias test asks participants to make associations between positive or negative adjectives and black or white faces as quickly as possible.

The test then determines the test-taker’s level of bias.

Project Implicit also offers tests to determine biases based on gender, religion and other factors.

To take an Implicit Association Test, visit: implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/

An app provides resources

The phrase “Driving While Black” is hardly new — but it is becoming more relevant.

UNC political science professor Frank Baumgartner, who studies racial bias in police departments, has studied the phenomenon specifically in Durham, as well as Chapel Hill and Carrboro.

He found the phrase appeared in The New York Times in 19 articles from 1960 to 1998. But the phrase was used in 528 articles from 1999 to 2001.

Now, it also lends itself to the name of the smartphone application that was slated for release in December.

The term is common in black culture, said Mariann Hyland, a creator of the smartphone application. Hyland is also director of the Diversity and Inclusion committee for the Oregon State Bar.

She also said it is common practice for black parents to “have the talk” with their children about how to stay safe when interacting with law enforcement.

“‘Having the talk’ is something that’s very prevalent in the African-American community,” Hyland said.

“So we have information for parents in the app.”

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