Open Data, Open Conversation - GovLoop

"... In fact, citizens can be more involved in the community and local government. As such, the Indianapolis Department of Public Safety (DPS) and Code for America launched Project Comport, an open-data initiative. The open-data initiative paves the way for a more unified collaboration among local law enforcement and the community. Jenny Montoya Tansey, Safety and Justice Director at Code for America, and Laura Ellena, Researcher for Code for America, sat down with Emily Jarvis on GovLoop’s State and Local Spotlight to discuss their open-data project and how it is improving the way the city interacts and functions with its citizenry. So, how does Project Comport work? Project Comport is a tool to extract, clean, and publish data about policing practices, Montoya Tansey explained. And as one can imagine, dealing with data from law enforcement means working with sensitive information. Therefore, Montoya Tansey furthered, the tool extracts data from the Internal Affairs database of a law enforcement agency and anonymizes it. This is important so as to protect the identity of victims and witnesses- in some cases, even police officers themselves. After this step has been taken, the data is visualized on a public website to provide context to the public. Project Comport also allows DPS to analyze data on use of force, officer-involved shootings, and complaints against the police ..."