IREO podcast features research on policing and the impact on bias
In a special episode of Inside Industry with IREO, the Innovation and Research Engagement Office (IREO) interviews David Makin, associate professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, and Lois James, assistant dean for research and assistant professor in the College of Nursing, about their research on policing, how it is being used to improve policing, and how their research can be used to fight racism.
Makin and James have partnered with police agencies across the state to learn more about police interactions and the impact of bias on police decision-making. By partnering with police agencies, Makin and James are able to analyze real-world data that will aid in solutions and improved training programs.
Makin is the lab director of the Complex Social Interaction Lab, a lab dedicated to the analysis of recorded interactions within the public safety and security community. Using analytics and machine learning, the lab is working towards early warning systems, post-event analysis, and incident flagging for a range of public safety and security stakeholders. Once analyzed, results are also shared back to agencies for training opportunities.
James is one of a handful of research advisors for the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Her simulation-based research on the impact of bias on police decision-making has significantly advanced what is known about how suspect race and ethnicity influence police officers during critical encounters with the public. James is also the founding director of the Counter Bias Training Simulation (CBTsim), a novel and innovative simulation-based implicit bias training program that has been featured in National Geographic and the recent feature-length documentary Bias.
Throughout this 48-minute podcast, James and Makin discuss how their respective research programs are used to improve policing and provide insight on ways to fight racism within the justice system.
Listen to this special episode of the podcast at https://soundcloud.com/user-531304935/inside-industry-with-ireo-ep-3-david-makin-lois-james. Check out more podcasts at https://research.wsu.edu/innovation/ireo-podcast/.