Addressing the gun-violence problem starts with data collection and analysisAs our nation reels from another mass shooting, the same conversation is being repeated: Gun-control advocates call for prescriptive controls, while gun-rights advocates argue the technicalities of those controls. And the debate stands still. It is… Oct 04 17October 04, 2017Article at Dallas News
Local police don’t go after most cybercriminals. We need better training.Imagine calling your local police after you’ve been mugged and being told, “Sorry, muggings are complicated. We don’t handle those. Try the FBI.” That’s exactly what happens every day when Americans call their local police to report online bank… Apr 21 17April 21, 2017Article at Washington Post
Guest post: The ‘low-hanging fruit’ of police reformA little more than a year ago, my colleagues and I started the StreetCred Police Killings In Context data project. There were already several projects tracking police shootings, including Fatal Encounters, and new projects at The Washington Post and… Jun 20 16June 20, 2016Article at Washington Post
When Forgiveness Makes The Problem Worse: Ferguson, St Louis, And The Arrest Warrant Backlog.When Forgiveness Makes The Problem Worse: Ferguson, St Louis, And The Arrest Warrant Backlog. St Louis’ plan to void backlogged warrants issued for minor crimes sounds like a great idea, but ultimately it will fail. When it does, it will aggravate… Jun 02 16June 02, 2016Article at Medium
The Backlog: Misdemeanor Arrest Warrants In The USAHow it’s possible that St Louis has more than 280,000 unserved arrest warrants. By Nick Selby ArchCity Defenders, a group that provides pro bono defense to St Louis-area indigent, say municipal courts that use misdemeanor arrest warrants as an… Jun 02 16June 02, 2016Article at Medium
Making Police Data Open: Use of Force & Complaints in ContextLast year, Indianapolis Police Department officers working the middle shift in the Eastern District received at least twice as many complaints of rudeness and hostility than officers on almost any other shift, in any other area. And 63% of those… Mar 06 16March 06, 2016Article at Medium
How tracking police data by race can make unfair laws look like the cops’ faultThe Black Lives Matter movement and the recent focus in the media on how police interact with citizens of different races has helped engage Americans in an important conversation about how law enforcement works. Study after study has found that black… Mar 03 16March 03, 2016Article at Washington Post
The Information Asymmetry of Digital TriageAfter a horrific accident, your loved-one is lying on a hospital bed, connected to a panoply of gadgets. They will need emergency surgery. The ER doc comes out and talks to you, pulling off his surgical mask, from behind which a stream of… Feb 24 16February 24, 2016Article at Medium
Kudos to the California Department of JusticeToday (February 18) at noon Pacific Time, the California Department of Justice (CADOJ) will relaunch OpenJustice, its incredible open site dedicated to bringing to citizens open, clear and accessible data about how they are policed*. The site has had… Feb 18 16February 18, 2016Article at Medium
Just counting people killed by police won’t fix problems. We need better data.In the past two years, deaths at the hands of police officers sparked protests, riots and a national conversation about how law enforcement uses force. That conversation would be a lot more productive, though, if data on police-involved fatalities… Jan 15 16January 15, 2016Article at Washington Post
Learning Lessons From Police KillingsWe need independent verification of facts about police killings (“Violent events in Chicago hold valuable lessons for Kansas City”, Nov. 27 ), and we especially need body cameras on all officers. In 2015, video was available in less than 25 percent… Dec 28 15December 28, 2015Article at Medium
The US Gov’t Says Backdoors Are Great For You — But A Serious Security Risk For ThemSometimes, when I’m on a plane, while we’re still on the ground, I’ll approach someone in First Class and, summoning all the earnestness at my command, I’ll say, “Hey, how you doing? Listen, you’re using the same text notification sound as I am.”… Dec 21 15December 21, 2015Article at Medium
LA’s City Council: We’ll get Probable Cause Before we Run Your License Plate and Send you a Shaming Letter. We Can’t Tell You How, though…Last week I wrote about a scheme by the Los Angeles City Council to send letters to those apparently soliciting prostitutes. These “Dear John” letters were made more grotesque by the idea, widely reported in the local press and now somewhat walked… Dec 05 15December 05, 2015Article at Medium
Los Angeles Just Proposed the Worst Use of License Plate Reader Data in History.Last month, when I spoke on a panel called “Spying in Public: Policy and Practice” at the 25th Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference in Washington, DC, we were embroiled in a discussion of license plate readers. As a law enforcement technologist,… Dec 04 15December 04, 2015Article at Medium
Why Our Police-Killings Data Doesn’t Include ‘Incident Summaries’One of the founding principles of the StreetCred Police Killings in Context dataset was that we would be as objective as humanly possible. Our data-set currently gathers up to 75 individual data points on each incident in which an unarmed civilian… Nov 30 15November 30, 2015Article at Medium
Use Of Force Data Can Cast Sunlight On CorruptionBy Nick Selby & Ben Singleton Last month, when we wrote a general case to support Attorney General Loretta Lynch and FBI Director James B. Comey in their calls for a national police use of force database, we said the most urgent value was in data… Nov 18 15November 18, 2015Article at Medium
Cops Don’t Need Just Data. They Need Information. So Do We.Since we launched the StreetCred Police Killings in Context database last month, the response has been really interesting in the world of law enforcement. The engagement with agencies and administrators, and with industry groups (watch this space)… Oct 14 15October 14, 2015Article at Medium
Finding More Evidence Than Just The Word of the CopsFinding More Evidence Than Just The Word of the Cops Nick Selby Sep 22, 2015·5 min read Exploring the StreetCred Police Killings in Context Data Nick Selby This week, the StreetCred Police Killings in Context (PKIC) dataset launches. You can read… Sep 24 15September 24, 2015Article at Medium
Diving in to the StreetCred PKIC DataDiving in to the StreetCred PKIC Data Nick Selby Sep 21, 2015·6 min read A peer-reviewed, open database that tracks the killing by US police of unarmed civilians. Nick Selby Today marks the launch of a new database designed to provide, in as… Sep 23 15September 23, 2015Article at Medium
That Pareto Guy? Turns Out He’s Pretty Smart.A database without context is like a gigantic buffet at a cheap resort: It looks huge, but there’s really very little meat there. By Nick Selby It is truly important that civilians maintain accurate records of the killings and uses of force by their… Aug 16 15August 16, 2015Article at Medium
