Probable Cause
Probable Cause is a civic education gaming experience that puts you in the driver’s seat during a routine traffic stop. Route 24 is a companion newsletter that invites you to explore our creative process on the project as we build, deconstructing key policy debates that seek to jumpstart public awareness and, in turn, mobilize social narrative change. Start your engines…
Foundation
It was my last semester of college and it was getting late. I’d attended a poetry reading with a few graduate students, but had decided to leave early. I had a paper due the next day. The surrounding neighborhood was a quaint, residential part of Yonkers, well-lit and close enough to walk back to campus. I’d barely made it to the edge of the sidewalk before I heard a car turn the corner. The car pulled up on the other side of the street, parallel to where I stood. It took a moment for me to realize it was a police car. There were two officers inside. One of them addressed me, asking if I’d seen any suspicious activity in the area. I hadn’t. It’s hard to articulate the level of awareness I felt in that moment, but it’s one every woman has experienced at some point in her life. Intuition signaled that those officers would be circling back and that I needed to be in a more public place. Fast. Heels in one hand, phone in the other, I sprinted to a nearby gas station. Their car caught up with me at the traffic light. The same officer who’d addressed me before, handed me an invitation to an upcoming party. Bring your friends, he said. Then they drove off…
The implications of this interaction jumpstarted my research interest in national traffic stop data, where the points of intersection may exist in our lived experiences, and how situational context, use of language, and personal choice impact outcomes.
When Route 24 soft-launched in September 2024, I wrote about how the term probable cause is derived from the probability-related Latin predicate, probabilis. The stories I initially shared during the election cycle oscillated between short stories and flash fiction — formats that are not my primary writing style, but that I believed were easily accessible to the general public. I addressed adjacent issues to Probable Cause from a place of subtlety, taking different people-powered routes to indicate how life may change in a flash. Six months later, our riders live across 22 states and 9 countries. The stories shared are more directly in line with the world of Probable Cause, such as script teasers and the “Arcade Alley” section, which gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at some of the gaming features and design approaches that have informed the project.
Transmission
Probable Cause is a hybrid engine designed to create lanes of discovery — to imagine possible avenues for community restoration within existing and emerging policy frameworks. It’s a story about generations of real people and a community space for social innovation. It’s a vehicle to explore ethical use cases for gamification, e-learning, and prebunking techniques. It’s a place to steer a middle course, not to acquiesce to hate, but instead to confront attempts at disorientation head-on and pursue solutions driven by faith in democracy and a commitment to humanity.
Our milestones include:
Hosting a civic education information session with Force Multiplier.
Supporting a voting and reproductive rights billboard with Art for Democracy and SaveArtSpace.
Mobilizing collective action with our Route 24 Toolkit and Navigators Circle.
And we’re just getting started…
Detailing
For riders in a position to offer financial backing, paid subscriptions to Route 24 help us to reach our Q1 fundraising goal of $25,000, which supports building the creative team and a playable prototype for Probable Cause. It also helps to keep this newsletter free and fully accessible to all of our riders.
Here’s what a Route 24 subscription gives you:
A safe zone to explore your blindspots.
Immersive stories that test drive people-powered solutions.
Interdisciplinary insights that shift your gears on key policy debates.
An innovative vehicle to accelerate pathways for community restoration.
If you believe real change is driven by the people behind the wheel, come along for the ride. We welcome one-time contributions or monthly subscriptions to help us sustain and advance this project.
However you’re able to support Route 24, thank you for joining us on this road!
Stay the course,
Sam
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