[Poscgrad] Reminder: SSL Lunch Talk Today, 12:30-2pm: Dr. Nicholas Weller (Political Science)

[Social Sciences Laboratory]

Hi everyone,

Our first lunch talk of the Fall quarter is today from *12:30 to 2:00 pm.* Dr.
Nicholas Weller (Political Science) will present “*Police Subject Black and
Hispanic Drivers to More Intensive Traffic Stops That Are Perceived as Less
Legitimate.*”

   - *In person: *INTS 1113
   - *Online:* Zoom <https://ucr.zoom.us/j/99846766217>

We look forward to seeing you there!

[image: SSL Lunch Talk_Weller_Oct19.png]

*Title*: Police Subject Black and Hispanic Drivers to More Intensive
Traffic Stops That Are Perceived as Less Legitimate

*Abstract: *Police reform rooted in procedural justice targets the content
of officers' communication rather than enforcement outcomes. These reforms
are based on evidence that citizen perceptions of police legitimacy are
more strongly affected by officers' adherence to procedural fairness than
their ultimate enforcement decisions. However, this evidence rests on a
narrow operationalization of citizen outcomes defined as arrests or
citations, overlooking a wide range of intrusive actions shown to affect
citizens' perceptions of police but rarely recorded in administrative
police data. We reevaluate the assumed primacy of officer communication
over citizen outcomes using detailed annotations of more than 1,500
body-worn camera recordings covering 917 Los Angeles Police Department
traffic stops. We construct a stop-level measure of procedural justice and
compare it to a new measure of stop intensity: the cumulative intrusiveness
of discretionary officer action within an interaction. We show that Black
and Hispanic drivers experience substantially more intense stops than White
drivers; this gap persists after conditioning on stop context and citizens'
escalatory behavior during a stop. We also show, counter to prevailing
wisdom, that stop intensity predicts perceived legitimacy as strongly as
procedural justice. Our findings underscore the utility of expanding
currently narrow measures of citizen outcomes in assessment of
police-citizen interactions, and that reforms intended to enhance police
legitimacy should also address intrusive police behavior rarely captured in
administrative enforcement data.

Social Sciences Lab


On Mon, Oct 12, 2026 at 10:17 AM Social Sciences Laboratory <ssl at ucr.edu>
wrote:

> Dear Social Science Community,
>
> This is a friendly reminder about the first lunch talk of our Fall
> series! Dr. Nicholas Weller (Political Science) will present his research,
> “Police Subject Black and Hispanic Drivers to More Intensive Traffic Stops
> That Are Perceived as Less Legitimate.”
>
>    - *When:* Monday, October 19, 12:30–2:00 pm
>    - *Where:* INTS 1113 & Zoom <https://ucr.zoom.us/j/99846766217>
>    - *Registration: *Register here <https://forms.gle/5mSW84ZaYmcd8tsa8>
>
> We hope to see you there!
>
> Social Sciences Lab
>
> [image: image.png]
>
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.ucr.edu/pipermail/poscgrad/attachments/20261019/616aabd9/attachment-0001.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image.png
Type: image/png
Size: 472942 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://lists.ucr.edu/pipermail/poscgrad/attachments/20261019/616aabd9/attachment-0002.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: SSL Lunch Talk_Weller_Oct19.png
Type: image/png
Size: 2544355 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://lists.ucr.edu/pipermail/poscgrad/attachments/20261019/616aabd9/attachment-0003.png>