The Police Data Accessibility Project
github.com
The Police Data Accessibility Project
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Re: The Police Data Accessibility Project
#2There's a project/movement forming to gather police data and make it accessible. They are working on scrapers and filing FOIA requests for the information.
They are calling for volunteers and need technical folks like us.
Re: The Police Data Accessibility Project
#3Someone told me the other day that they had investigated the Minneapolis police blotter, after the reporting that the majority of people arrested were from out of state. That investigation turned up that the blotter didn't agree, and shortly after it was revealed the police issued an apology.
Denver made a similar report, but have not made their arrest records public, for some reason...
Re: The Police Data Accessibility Project
#4There was a similar project posted here just earlier today.
Show HN: Citizen Police Data Project – Police allegation data made accessible - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23374345
Re: The Police Data Accessibility Project
#5Someone told me the other day that they had investigated the Minneapolis police blotter, after the reporting that the majority of people arrested were from out of state. That investigation turned up that the blotter didn't agree, and shortly after it was revealed the police issued an apology. Denver made a similar report, but have not made their arrest records public, for some reason...
Denver is so far from any other major city outside of their state. Do they expect us to believe that there are hordes of people from Colby, Kansas that drove for hours just to riot?
Minneapolis is reasonable considering its the epicenter of the current issue and reasonable driving distance from Wisconsin.
Re: The Police Data Accessibility Project
#6I'm not sure the goal of this project but collecting criminal arrest information and making it public is not going to help anyone who's been wrongfully arrested, or anyone who's had their charge expunged. I'm fairly sure that storing and exposing this data improperly without respect to subsequent court actions is in violation of the law.
Re: The Police Data Accessibility Project
#7Someone told me the other day that they had investigated the Minneapolis police blotter, after the reporting that the majority of people arrested were from out of state. That investigation turned up that the blotter didn't agree, and shortly after it was revealed the police issued an apology. Denver made a similar report, but have not made their arrest records public, for some reason...
The police issued an apology? How about we fire someone for this. There have to be consequences or the system doesn't work.
Re: The Police Data Accessibility Project
#8I submitted a FOIA request last year for all parking citations issued in San Francisco. The data was truly extraordinary and showed clearly how simple street sweeping citations could lead to a car being towed, auctioned, and the owner (whose name/license plate is publicly listed if they overpaid or paid a citation twice [1]) losing their business and eventually moving elsewhere. I decided against publishing my research out of fear of encroaching on the privacy of those involved.
One story that comes to mind is the license plate HPPYPPS, a plumber whose company Happy Pipes provided service around SF. He was subject to numerous citations on the order of $1k a month. When his van was towed, he likely did not have the funds to retrieve it, and it was subsequently auctioned. He now does business under the same name, but in Utah. It is interesting to think of how much tax revenue the city actually lost by fining a small business out of existence, which was likely much greater than the total punitive fines levied against him.
In the process of looking up companies that owned vehicles, S1 filings, and high-end cars that seem to accrue tens of thousands of dollars of fines every year, I grew exhausted and demoralized by the project and it has sat on my back burner for a year now. If anyone is interested in taking this up while respecting the privacy of those involved, let me know how to contact you and I'll share my data.
1. https://www.sfmta.com/sites/default/files/reports-and-docume...
Re: The Police Data Accessibility Project
#9I'm not sure the goal of this project but collecting criminal arrest information and making it public is not going to help anyone who's been wrongfully arrested, or anyone who's had their charge expunged. I'm fairly sure that storing and exposing this data improperly without respect to subsequent court actions is in violation of the law.
What law would be violated? What law would one use to infringe freedom of speech to continue to publish these records as a private citizen? Failing all else, one can host outside the jurisdiction.
Re: The Police Data Accessibility Project
#10I'm not sure the goal of this project but collecting criminal arrest information and making it public is not going to help anyone who's been wrongfully arrested, or anyone who's had their charge expunged. I'm fairly sure that storing and exposing this data improperly without respect to subsequent court actions is in violation of the law.
What law would be violated? What law would one use to infringe freedom of speech to continue to publish these records as a private citizen? Failing all else, one can host outside the jurisdiction.
Records can be expunged, sometimes automatically per plea agreements. And yet these records would live on in this dataset.