Building a Data Tool for Justice

• In Event: Solving the Problem of Police Data: The National Justice Database

Abstract

The federal government does not collect data on police behavior. Departments that collect information on police behavior at all do so idiosyncratically, varying widely in the type and manner of data collected. Data collection requests are among the most costly in litigation against police departments—both to carry out and in their consequences. So, how did the National Justice Database (NJD) come to pass? The politics of constructing the NJD were surprisingly simple: The Center for Policing Equity provided a useful tool to police and communities in exchange for the data. Specifically, every NJD partner receives a research report based on the data provided: administrative data, surveys of officers, and—whenever possible—surveys of communities. When integrated with census data, these data allow for a more comprehensive analysis of law enforcement outcomes than was previously possible, shedding light on how much police attitudes, culture, and policies are responsible for negative police outcomes (e.g., racial disparities) and how much those outcomes may result from upstream factors (e.g., poverty, education, housing, etc.) This presentation outlines the practical history of the NJD as well as the analytic framework that makes it useful to police and the communities they are sworn to protect.

Authors

• Phillip Atiba Goff, Center for Policing Equity

• Christopher Burbank, Center for Policing Equity

• Krista Dunn, Center for Policing Equity

• Christopher Mebius, Center for Policing Equity

• Kat Amano, Center for Policing Equity

• Meredith Gamson Smiedt, Center for Policing Equity