Wednesday, August 4, 2010

An Important Public Service

We've plugged Injustice Everywhere previously for its herculean efforts at documenting American police misconduct on a daily basis:

Did you know that the last time the US government bothered to gather any information about the problem of police misconduct in the United States was in 2002?

Even then, the study they did only covered 5% of the police departments in the US and, on top of that, participation was only voluntary and relied on what police departments were willing to report about misconduct within their own ranks.

One of the biggest obstacles in the way towards solving the problem of police brutality and misconduct is a fundamental lack of information about police misconduct.

The National Police Misconduct Statistics and Reporting Project (NPMSRP), established in April of 2009, is a non-profit, non-partisan, non-governmental project devoted to help resolve that problem. The NPMSRP gathers data on police misconduct through reports of misconduct made available through the media and generates statistical and trending information based on those reports.

The project analyzes media reports several times a day to locate reports of police misconduct, records those reports in a database, and then transmits details about each report in a publicly available social media news feed on Twitter.

At the end of each quarter the database is scanned to ensure all recorded reports are not duplicates of reports already gathered and meet all criteria for valid police misconduct reports. Those reports are then categorized and analyzed to produce quarterly and annual police misconduct statistical reports that are then posted on this site along with a copy of the database entries for that report to ensure that the data used for the reports is transparent and publicly reviewable.

At the end of each year a special aggregate statistical report is generated and posted to the site to examine long-term statistical information gathered by the NPMSRP with additional detailed analysis including localized misconduct ranking information and statistical trending data. The annual aggregate reports include detailed per-capita misconduct rates and comparisons between law enforcement agencies for analysis as well.

In addition to these statistical and trending reports, the NPMSRP also produces additional police misconduct-related stories and policy analysis on the site for public consumption while also performing outreach and advocacy for police misconduct victims.

While the use of media reports as a source of data for the NPMSRP is an imperfect solution, there are none better at this time since a vast majority of police departments do not release misconduct data and state laws in many locations eve prohibit the sharing of such data. Additionally, utilizing court records only gives us cases where officers were prosecuted or faced civil action while neglecting data from disciplinary actions taken against officers in the absence of other actions.

The fact of the matter is that, while our solution is imperfect, none are perfect and this is the only project currently attempting to track misconduct on a national scale… so, while imperfect, the NPMSRP can still help identify trends and potential trouble-spots for police misconduct while also providing the public with a better picture to how extensive police misconduct in the US might actually be and how that relates to their lives where they live.

Police misconduct, accountability, and transparency are issues that affect everyone in the US. The more information we have about these issues, the more we can do to help law enforcement agencies improve how they interact with the communities they are entrusted to protect and serve and, in doing so, help build better relationships of trust between the community and law enforcement agencies.


Unfortunately, their efforts are about to go dark, due to the operator's dreadful financial straits.

I know that there's a Depression on, and I also know that every spare cent is being used to prepare the tribe to survive what is coming.

But all of you are smart enough to recognize that through its spotlight glare on what otherwise would be hidden behind the Blue Wall and media indifference to the issue, Injustice Everywhere is in fact a weapon against governmental tyranny.

If you can, please consider using the "donate" button in the center of the home screen to spot even a few dollars to help the team over there.

I have.

9 comments:

  1. I had no idea this site was on the verge of going under. This guy does a fantastic job indeed. I sent him $100 because I sincerely believe his contribution to liberty is desperately needed. I hope others agree enough to put a bit of their fortunes on the line.

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  2. ...thanx...my donation pales by comparison to GR4US...but it's a start i guess...

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  3. The link results in an otherwise blank web page with only the words "Fatal Failure".

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  4. We were hit on both the laptop and desktop. I couldn't tell you if it was a result of this site or not - we have a daily routine of about a dozen sites, so we aren't really sure where it came from. The laptop required a completely new hard drive.

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  5. I just tried the link, and got the same "fatal failure" screen, but my computer wasn't affected. Is paypal not keeping the link open?

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  6. Donated what I could. Thanks for calling our attention to this.

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  7. I sent what I could ($50.00). I agree, he renders an invaluable service to the liberty movement. I hope more contribute something, even $5.00. I would hate to see this site disappear.

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