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The Police Data Accessibility Project

github.com

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Re: The Police Data Accessibility Project

#21

Post by elliekelly »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #9
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.

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.

It’s not always about flexing our rights when it comes at the expense of others. Sometimes it’s about treating others the way you would like to be treated. Even if you’re under no obligation to treat them kindly. Even if you’re entitled not to treat them kindly.

Surely there is a way to achieve the stated goal of the project without the collateral damage of exposing information that individuals might, for whatever reason, prefer not be published online.

Re: The Police Data Accessibility Project

#22

Post by bsanr2 »

I'm pessimistic that any real headway can be made in this area. I suspect that many local PDs purposefully obfuscate or refrain from tracking data that could be used against their efforts to maintain their existing culture; and that even in the cases of reform-minded leaders coming to power, there are interests both below and orthogonal to, and sometimes even above, them that are not on the same page[1].

Worst of all, an incomplete attempt to compile statistics that purports to be a comprehensive overview can be just as destructive as doing nothing at all. One notes how often white supremacists, racist, Neo-Nazis, and internet trolls bring up FBI arrest statistics, which rely on local LEO reporting and certainly, at the very least, reflect the known role implicit bias based on race plays in arrest rates.

[1]https://theintercept.com/2020/05/29/george-floyd-minneapolis... Semi-related: https://www.propublica.org/article/why-america-fails-at-gath...

Re: The Police Data Accessibility Project

#23

Post by ReactiveJelly »

IAmGraydon wrote: post #17
_1100 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's difficult to anonymize anything involving locations and times

Re: The Police Data Accessibility Project

#24

Post by bsanr2 »

thephyber wrote: post #16
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).

Retained, sure, but publicly-disseminated in a PII database? There are laws about handling sensitive data like that.

Re: The Police Data Accessibility Project

#25

Post by thephyber »

abellerose wrote: post #18

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…

This sounds similar to the "right to be forgotten" concept in EU law where citizens can complain to Google to have their records removed from the search engine, but there is no way to delete all data about the incident.

I don't want to trivialize the pain a wrongful arrest ad bullying caused, but I think the solution to the underlying problem is more sunlight, not less. Without being able to see how many wrongful/unfruitful arrests happened at the hands of your arresting officer and DA, power might go unchecked for longer and grow more corrupt.

Re: The Police Data Accessibility Project

#26

Post by hirundo »

Expect Github/Microsoft to crumble at the first, inevitable, court order to censor this material. This is derogatory data about members of among the most politically and legally powerful groups in the country. It's great to post this data there, but hopefully as only one node in a well distributed network of many clones.

Re: The Police Data Accessibility Project

#29

Post by runawaybottle »

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…

Is there any protocol to have masked data similar to healthcare data?

Re: The Police Data Accessibility Project

#30

Post by primitivesuave »

ReactiveJelly wrote: post #23
IAmGraydon wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It's difficult to anonymize anything involving locations and times

My concern was primarily that license plate numbers are included in the data, which I used to track vehicles across multiple citations. The license plate is also included in the towing dataset as well as the escheatment data published by SFMTA which links license plates to the name of the owner.
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