Emergency Dispatch and Human Rights

Peter J. Marina is a New Orleans native, sociologist, and criminologist, and an Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminology. Trained at the New School for Social Research, Marina’s scholarship focuses on urban ethnography, transgression, and social inequalities, with particular attention to human rights, policing, and communities living on society’s margins. He is the author of Human Rights Policing, Down and Out in New Orleans, and several other books and articles. Marina’s thinking examines power, resistance, and social control across diverse social worlds, from Pentecostal tongue-speaking churches and Caribbean ritual life to street performers and urban occultists.Pedro Marina is a retired lieutenant with the New Orleans Police Department who served for more than thirty years in patrol, narcotics, robbery investigations, vice operations, and SWAT. A sociology graduate of the University of New Orleans, he held supervisory and command positions throughout New Orleans, including in the French Quarter, and received numerous commendations for exemplary service during his career. Lieutenant Marina lives in Lacombe, Louisiana, with his dog, Meggie.

• 1. Human Rights Between Possession and Experience in Emergency Dispatch 2. Dispatcher Power, Dual-Subject Asymmetry, and Human Rights Practice 3. The Call Behind the Call: Sociological Listening and Context Recognition 4. Three People, One Call: Tri-Subject Asymmetry and Rights-Based Decision Making 5. Seven Calls: Case Scenarios on Bias, Language, Crisis, and Agency in Dispatch 6. The Long Game: Institutional Change and the Future of Dispatch Centers