Epistemic Justice in Police-Community Encounters

Sor Juana's intellectual legacy highlights how power distorts whose knowledge counts as truth. Epistemic justice in policing means officers actively counter bias in how they receive information: believing community witnesses, respecting traditional ecological knowledge, validating lived experience of discrimination. When a Latinx resident describes harassment, an immigrant community explains their legal concerns, or an Indigenous elder interprets events through cultural context, these accounts deserve credibility equivalent to official reports. This requires training officers to recognize testimonial injustice—discounting speakers based on stereotypes—and hermeneutical injustice—lacking concepts to understand community experiences. Practically, it means independent investigation of community complaints, representation in decision-making bodies, and accountability when officers dismiss credible accounts. Epistemic justice transforms policing from a system where official narratives dominate to one where diverse ways of knowing shape understanding and response.