How we built the largest database of police use of force in N.J. history

Post by Falling3 » Sun, Dec 02, 2018, 5:52 PM UTC

stareatgoats wrote: post #37

danso wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You'll note that the database doesn't analyze racism, it analyses race. It's impossible to do any analysis of racial disparity unless the race element is specifically recorded. And, as data collection is as much a political endeavor as it is technical, not every agency or state tracks race. You can see a not-quite complete collection and comparison of nationwide police data in the Stanford Open Policing Project (di…

The Stanford data set suffers from the same problems as the one in discussion: It opens up for correlating 'race' with foul behavior. Of course there may be such a correlation per se, just as there may be a correlation between heavy drinkers/medication abusers and excessive use of force. The problem with isolating the 'race' factor is that it promotes race hate, which is just stupid, when there are factors that are a…

Post by 911throwaway911 » Sun, Dec 02, 2018, 5:54 PM UTC

cgriswald wrote: post #28

danso wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Police officers have a vast amount of authority, not just being able to decide when to use lethal force, but in how to or even whether or not to pursue a case. In addition, they are protected by laws and resources that make targeting police for harassment an extremely foolish proposition. Judges and prosecutors don’t have their identities hidden, why would the officer whose testimony is often central and unquestioned…

I'm not sure that's relevant, for two reasons. First, the McCarthy and Stirling et al. already have this data, so if it is needed for criminal or civil cases, likely they would make it available and if not it can be subpoenaed. Second, the majority of these officers aren't involved and won't be involved in a fatal shooting or other serious matters. I think this data is valuable for two things: 1. Discovering systemic…

Post by catacombs » Sun, Dec 02, 2018, 6:01 PM UTC

abledon wrote: post #5

stareatgoats wrote: post #4

A database that lists the officers responsible for force by name, frequency and race. Resulting in neat graphs that strongly suggests that police violence is caused by two factors: individuals and/or race. Police brutality is a serious problem and data like this should be available, but several things here are (maybe intentionally) provocative: 1. Listing the officers by name is a kind of online vigilantism that ulti…

yeah this is not good. Being a police officer, putting your life on the line to protect citizens... the guy showing up at your place at 3 am to deal with a crazed meth addict neighbour next door.. doing this dangerous task for many years. To have armchair 'law enforcement' experts in each living room of the nation linking to an officers behaviour on twitter, not having the context of the case, the background and prev…

Post by danso » Sun, Dec 02, 2018, 6:03 PM UTC

stareatgoats wrote: post #37

danso wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You'll note that the database doesn't analyze racism, it analyses race. It's impossible to do any analysis of racial disparity unless the race element is specifically recorded. And, as data collection is as much a political endeavor as it is technical, not every agency or state tracks race. You can see a not-quite complete collection and comparison of nationwide police data in the Stanford Open Policing Project (di…

The Stanford data set suffers from the same problems as the one in discussion: It opens up for correlating 'race' with foul behavior. Of course there may be such a correlation per se, just as there may be a correlation between heavy drinkers/medication abusers and excessive use of force. The problem with isolating the 'race' factor is that it promotes race hate, which is just stupid, when there are factors that are a…

Post by abledon » Sun, Dec 02, 2018, 6:19 PM UTC

catacombs wrote: post #46

abledon wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yeah this is not good. Being a police officer, putting your life on the line to protect citizens... the guy showing up at your place at 3 am to deal with a crazed meth addict neighbour next door.. doing this dangerous task for many years. To have armchair 'law enforcement' experts in each living room of the nation linking to an officers behaviour on twitter, not having the context of the case, the background and prev…

Are you a cop?