Step 1 :The level of confidence is 85%, which means the level of significance, $\alpha$, is 1 - 0.85 = 0.15.
Step 2 :Since we are looking for $z_{\alpha / 2}$, we need to divide $\alpha$ by 2, which gives us 0.075.
Step 3 :We then look for this value in the standard normal distribution table to find the corresponding z-score.
Step 4 :The critical value $z_{\alpha / 2}$ that corresponds to a $85 \%$ level of confidence is approximately 1.44 when rounded to two decimal places.
Step 5 :Final Answer: $z_{\alpha / 2} = \boxed{1.44}$