Research

Jessica aims to answer the question of how 911 call-takers mediate caller demands and impact first response . She worked for two years as a 911 call-taker in Southeast Michigan, which allowed her to analyze the kinds of problems callers report, the decisions that call-takers must make, the challenges and dilemmas that they face, and the ways in which training and organizational norms shape the call-taking process. Her latest research adds to this body of work by interviewing municipal and police leaders, 911 operators, and first responders in Denver, Tucson, and San Francisco to learn about their alternative response efforts. She is working with a team of researchers from NYU and Suffolk to do this work.

Gillooly has received research grants supporting her work through the Policing Project at NYU School of Law, National Institutes of Health NICHD Population Studies Training Grant, University of Michigan Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship, and Weinberg Research Prize. She defended her Ph.D. in 2020 at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.