Building on the President’s Call to Action to Leverage Open Data to Increase Trust between Police and Citizens

In December 2014, President Obama launched the Task Force on 21st Century Policing to study approaches to strengthen law enforcement and community relations while at the same time enhancing public safety. That Task Force developed a series of concrete and specific recommendations, many of which emphasize the opportunity for police departments to use data and technology to increase transparency and accountability. As a response, the White House launched the Police Data Initiative, a community of practice that includes leading law enforcement agencies, technologists, and researchers committed to improving the relationship between citizens and police at the local level through the use of data to increase transparency, build community trust, and strengthen accountability. A growing number of jurisdictions from across the country are joining the initiative, all working toward releasing at least three policing data sets to the public in an open data format (i.e., disaggregated, incident-level, and machine-readable), with a portion of those agencies also undertaking the challenge of leveraging data science to develop more effective accountability/early intervention systems using their internal police department data.

As the President said in his speech to community members and law enforcement in Camden, New Jersey in May 2015, “We’ve launched a Police Data Initiative that’s helping Camden and other innovative cities use data to strengthen their work and hold themselves accountable by sharing it with the public…so it’s even easier for police departments to do the things they already want to do in helping to track what’s going on in communities, and then also helping to make sure that that data is used effectively.”

Many organizations are taking action to advance the goal of continuing to improve community policing through the use of data. We want to hear from you about the new, specific, and measurable steps that your organization or department is taking to use open data to increase transparency, build community trust, and strengthen accountability in community policing. We invite private sector companies, nonprofits and community organizations, and police departments to share their activities and commitments to advance these goals.

Private Sector Companies, Nonprofits, and Community Organizations: Commit to supporting the Police Data Initiative

Let us know if you are a private sector company, nonprofit, or community organization taking new, specific, and measurable steps to further the PDI’s goals of increasing transparency, building community trust, and strengthen accountability.

Background Information

(City, State)

Existing Efforts

In what capacity does your company or organization currently interact with law enforcement agencies, community groups, and/or open data?

 

Tell Us About Your New Actions and Commitments

Please describe your new efforts to enable departments to share police data with the public or to use data for increased community engagement. Please provide specific details as to what you plan to do and how you will accomplish it.

 

Law Enforcement Agencies: Commit to Supporting the Police Data Initiative

Let us know if you are a city or law enforcement agency interested in making data available as part of the Police Data Initiative. This would involve participating in a community of practice around this work, and committing to releasing at least three data sets around police-citizen interactions in an open data format.

Existing Efforts

Please describe the current state of your city or agency’s police data. For example, what datasets are publicly shared?

Tell Us About Your New Actions and Commitments

Please describe your proposed commitments to make data more accessible to the public and to use data as a path for citizen engagement. Please provide specific details as to what you plan to do and how you will accomplish it.

*Required Field