TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Harrington, Emma
AU  - Shaffer, Hannah
        TI  - Learning About Police Bias: Prosecutors and Police Before and After Body-Worn Cameras
        PY  - 2026/Apr/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 18528
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp18528
        AB  - 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.
        KW  - systemic discrimination
KW  - biased beliefs
KW  - monitoring
KW  - bodyworn cameras
KW  - prosecutorial discretion
KW  - racial disparities
KW  - criminal justice system
        ER  -