Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Police Data Accessibility Project

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 100 posts

Re: The Police Data Accessibility Project

#11

Post by swrj »

primitivesuave wrote: post #8

I 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 resear…

That sounds very interesting and is not something I had ever considered. Is there a reason you did not publish your findings anonymously?

Re: The Police Data Accessibility Project

#12

Post by genghisjahn »

linsomniac wrote: post #3

Someone 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...

Is there a link to this or is the some one that told you, like, totes trustworthy?

Re: The Police Data Accessibility Project

#13

Post by fsre4 »

How about a "racial social distancing" project?

Let the joggers have their own "safe spaces", where they can govern and police themselves, the non-joggers can have their own jogger-free communities, and the rest of you idiots that enjoy living like this can have your "enriched," "virbrant" hell holes.

Re: The Police Data Accessibility Project

#14

Post by jwilber »

psychometry wrote: post #10
toomuchtodo wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I agree that that is a very valid concern. I’d hope the data is anonymized (even though I recognize anonymized data is not perfect).

Re: The Police Data Accessibility Project

#15

Post by _1100 »

swrj wrote: post #11
primitivesuave wrote: post #8

I 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 resear…

That sounds very interesting and is not something I had ever considered. Is there a reason you did not publish your findings anonymously?

His concern was encroaching on individuals’ privacy. The author of such encroachment wasn’t their concern.

Re: The Police Data Accessibility Project

#16

Post by thephyber »

chrisco255 wrote: post #6

I'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.

> is in violation of the law

It's not clear to me that this is true for all data about an arrest/charge.

Courts have upheld that arrest mugshots and fingerprints taken at jail intake time both can be retained by the law enforcement system even if the arrested person is exonerated (acquitted, charged dropped, etc).

Re: The Police Data Accessibility Project

#17

Post by IAmGraydon »

_1100 wrote: post #15
swrj wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds very interesting and is not something I had ever considered. Is there a reason you did not publish your findings anonymously?

His concern was encroaching on individuals’ privacy. The author of such encroachment wasn’t their concern.

I’m pretty sure he’s talking about anonymizing the data.

Re: The Police Data Accessibility Project

#18

Post by abellerose »

I find these projects potentially dangerous and for people who have been arrested in a state where the case is dismissed but they cannot expunge because of the type of charge.

I was falsely arrested under the belief of arson. It happened when I was in my early 20s. The charges were dismissed and my expensive lawyer said it was the best deal to end it all. There wasn't even a fire and a cop that made the arrest had no reason to assume I was trying to start a fire. In any case, I still have to wait a few years to even expunge it.

Well, when going through university I was bullied & ostracized for a period of time and eventually found out someone had googled my name. They could see the arrest on some website and just the type of charge it was.

Re: The Police Data Accessibility Project

#19

Post by nradov »

primitivesuave wrote: post #8

I 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 resear…

The unfortunate reality is that parking tickets are just a cost of doing business in any dense city. When you have appointments to keep you simply can't circle the block until a parking space opens up. But that means businesses have to charge customers enough to cover the ticket cost, and then actually pay the tickets rather than letting them accumulate.

Re: The Police Data Accessibility Project

#20

Post by thephyber »

gre wrote: post #7
linsomniac wrote: post #3

Someone 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.

> How about we fire someone for this. There have to be consequences or the system doesn't work.

Why do you think people are protesting or rioting? There are a ton of people who feel like their desire to change "the system" is falling on deaf ears.

Elections and lawsuits are really the only meaningful power the average person has over those in power. Other than that, it's up to people in power to check others in power via "checks and balances".

Post reply on HN