Principal Investigators

Dr. Lauren E. Brown is a Research Scientist at the Sol Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California (USC) where she contributes to the Police Misconduct Registry. Dr. Brown’s research focuses on inequality in employment, housing and service delivery as well as police reform. 

Dr. Morteza Dehghani is an Associate Professor of Psychology, computer science and the Brain and Creativity Institute (BCI) at University of Southern California and PI of the Morality and Language Lab. His research spans the boundary between psychology and artificial intelligence. He investigates the properties of cognition by studying social discourse, including narratives, social media, speeches and news articles; he also conducts behavioral studies. 

Dr. Brittany Friedman is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Faculty Affiliate of the Price Center for Social Innovation and the Equity Research Institute at the University of Southern California. She is a sociologist of punishment and social control, and publishes research in the areas of racial inequality, incarceration, monetary sanctions, and access to justice.

Dr. Benjamin A.T. Graham is an Associate Professor of Political Science and International Relations at USC and Research Director for the Law Enforcement Work inquiry System (LEWIS). He has published research in the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science and the Journal of Politics, among others. He has also partnered with both the public and private sector, including the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Department of Defense, Facebook, and the National Foster Youth Institute. 

Dr. Ellie Graeden is Research Professor at the Georgetown University Center for Global Health Science and Security. Dr. Graeden applies complex systems analysis to challenges at the intersection of policy, science, and strategy. She and her team have developed a wide range of quantitative results deriving global-scale decision making by FEMA, CDC, the US State Department, the World Health Organization, the World Bank, and the G20 and G7. She serves as the Data PI on this effort, which is formally led by Drs. Narayanan and Graham from the University of Southern California (USC). 

Dr. Shrikanth (Shri) Narayanan is University Professor and Nikias Chair in Engineering at USC and Research Director at USC/Information Sciences Institute. He holds appointments as Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Linguistics, Psychology, Neuroscience, Otolaryngology, and Pediatrics, and is director of the Ming Hsieh Institute. The Signal Analysis and Interpretation Lab (SAIL) he leads focuses on creating inclusive technologies to understand, support and enhance human experiences. He brings expertise in speech, audio, video and multimodal signal processing and machine intelligence, spoken dialogue and multimodal interface design, human emotions and behavior, and has published over 900 papers and 18 US patents in these domains.

Dr. Michael Sierra-Arévalo is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin and former member of the City of Austin’s Public Safety Commission. His research focuses on police culture, violence, and legitimacy. His new book, THE DANGER IMPERATIVE: Violence, Death, and the Soul of Policing, will be published by Columbia University Press in Spring 2024. He received his Ph.D. in Sociology from Yale University and his B.A. in Sociology and Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Nicholas Weller is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of California – Riverside. He brings significant expertise in research design and the study of causal mechanisms to the project. He has published articles in political science, sociology, law, and computer science journals.