Police misconduct: Search discipline records for thousands of cops
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Re: Police misconduct: Search discipline records for thousands of cops
#2Instead of the article I get:
"A MESSAGE FROM USA TODAY NETWORK It appears that you’re visiting us from a location in the European Union. We are directing you to our EU Experience.
This site does not collect personally identifiable information or persistent identifiers from, deliver a personalized experience to, or otherwise track or monitor persons reasonably identified as visiting our Site from the European Union. We do identify EU internet protocol (IP) addresses for the purpose of determining whether to direct you to USA TODAY NETWORK’s EU Experience.
This site provides news and information of USA TODAY NETWORK. We hope you enjoy the site. "
I am not in the EU and I am not using an EU ip address.
So I guess you can't find out about police misconduct unless you are trackable...
Re: Police misconduct: Search discipline records for thousands of cops
#3Instead of the article I get: "A MESSAGE FROM USA TODAY NETWORK It appears that you’re visiting us from a location in the European Union. We are directing you to our EU Experience. This site does not collect personally identifiable information or persistent identifiers from, deliver a personalized experience to, or otherwise track or monitor persons reasonably identified as visiting our Site from the European Union.…
I imagine they get a pretty low amount of EU traffic, and so went for the least effort path to deal with GDPR. And, yeah, IP location databases are often wrong. Or maybe they just treat "non US IP" as "redirect to sparse GDPR site".
It is an odd publication. They have some sort of deal with many US hotels where guests get a paper copy for free. I suspect that represents the overwhelming share of anyone that reads it. It's commonly thought of as low quality here.
Archived copy: https://outline.com/FdzvqY
Their database as a csv: https://gofile.io/?c=bEbPGv
Re: Police misconduct: Search discipline records for thousands of cops
#4This is important. The number of times I've seen people in authority lie to justify their behavior is too damn high.
Re: Police misconduct: Search discipline records for thousands of cops
#5Instead of the article I get: "A MESSAGE FROM USA TODAY NETWORK It appears that you’re visiting us from a location in the European Union. We are directing you to our EU Experience. This site does not collect personally identifiable information or persistent identifiers from, deliver a personalized experience to, or otherwise track or monitor persons reasonably identified as visiting our Site from the European Union.…
I imagine they get a pretty low amount of EU traffic, and so went for the least effort path to deal with GDPR. And, yeah, IP location databases are often wrong. Or maybe they just treat "non US IP" as "redirect to sparse GDPR site". It is an odd publication. They have some sort of deal with many US hotels where guests get a paper copy for free. I suspect that represents the overwhelming share of anyone that reads it.…
there are pdf and txt files available also:
e.g. https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/5977583/New-York-... and https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/5977583/New-York-...
(url can be easily derived from the urls in the csv, "https://www.usatoday.com/documents/5977583-New-York-Decertif... in this case)
Re: Police misconduct: Search discipline records for thousands of cops
#6Hmm.
I was hoping for an aggregate view on why cops were dismissed. They didn't seem to try to index the reasons. This just lets you search for names/towns, which then links to a spreadsheet that contains the reason someone was decertified.
So it seems like the main purpose of this would be for avoiding the other situation they have there: a crook/felon becoming police chief[1]. But I'm concerned that this is yet another example of how technology is making it impossible to move on from one's past. Many of them are drug use, or small crimes, "Unprofessional relationship", etc.
On one hand, it's great this can be researched to avoid a bad hire like above, but I guess I also feel sorry for Joe or Jane Cop who was dismissed from the job for using cocaine or shoplifting and now it's easily searchable 25 years later for everyone in the world[2]. Is avoiding the former situation worth the latter?
[1] - https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2019/0...
[2] - Not specific to cops, but this is literally how mug shot websites make their money. "Pay us to remove your mugshot on our site".
Re: Police misconduct: Search discipline records for thousands of cops
#7I really have to give it to USA Today, the amount of effort/work to create this is immense.
My worry is around maintaining and so perhaps there's a 'github'-like tool/platform that they could use to ensure the data is updated.
Perhaps folks could suggest a scale'able solution that wouldn't break the bank towards the responsible upkeep this would entail.
Re: Police misconduct: Search discipline records for thousands of cops
#8I really have to give it to USA Today, the amount of effort/work to create this is immense. My worry is around maintaining and so perhaps there's a 'github'-like tool/platform that they could use to ensure the data is updated. Perhaps folks could suggest a scale'able solution that wouldn't break the bank towards the responsible upkeep this would entail.
I agree 100%. Kudos to the team at USA Today for compiling it.
This dataset[1] has been frequently asked about on the open data stack exchange site[2], with no real authoritative answer until now.
Re: Police misconduct: Search discipline records for thousands of cops
#9There are two things that must happen before any movement will occur on this front. Bringing the abuses to even more exposure can help both occur.
1) Reign in qualified immunity for both law enforcement, prosecutors, and politicians.
2) End the influence of the Police and Sheriff public employee unions over politicians. People carp constantly about corporate influence don't understand the level the public sector employee unions have; go look at California's prison and even education problems for a refresher.
Re: Police misconduct: Search discipline records for thousands of cops
#10I really have to give it to USA Today, the amount of effort/work to create this is immense. My worry is around maintaining and so perhaps there's a 'github'-like tool/platform that they could use to ensure the data is updated. Perhaps folks could suggest a scale'able solution that wouldn't break the bank towards the responsible upkeep this would entail.
Interesting point.
A few years ago, ProPublica designed an updated way to "Investigate Doctors". They built a chart that explains the nuances of the disciplinary history available, how to contact boards, and the disciplinary actions taken by each state. If interested, it's available here: https://projects.propublica.org/graphics/investigating-docto....
Something like this may be useful for USA Today or any folks who, as you say, may want to scale this up.