Learning About Police Bias: Prosecutors and Police Before and After Body-Worn Cameras

Emma Harrington () and Hannah Shaffer
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Emma Harrington: University of Virginia
Hannah Shaffer: Harvard Law School

No 18528, IZA Discussion Papers from IZA Network @ LISER

Abstract: Decision-makers often rely on earlier actors but fail to correct for their biases. We model and measure two mechanisms: underestimating upstream bias and treating subjective information as ground truth. We link an original survey of 203 North Carolina prosecutors to their 505,787 cases. Exploiting the rollout of police body-worn cameras (BWC), we show monitoring reduces incarceration disparities by 14 percent, little of which is driven by arrests. About one quarter of this effect reflects learning: prosecutors with greater BWC exposure view police as more biased and unreliable. Monitoring reduces disparities most for prosecutors who treat police reports as ground truth.

Keywords: systemic discrimination; biased beliefs; monitoring; bodyworn cameras; prosecutorial discretion; racial disparities; criminal justice system (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D82 D83 J15 K14 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-inv and nep-law
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