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“Open and Shut? The Promise – and Problems – of Government Open Data Portals in Meeting Community Information Needs”
Rather than consuming the resources of journalists and lawyers in fighting for access to government records, opening data voluntarily enables news organizations to devote their resources to adding value to government information through analysis and contextualization. But the reality of open data has yet to fully match its promise. This paper examines how and why, and recommends protocols to guide government agencies in selecting the highest-value datasets to publish.
UCLA Journal of Law and Technology. Open and Shut? The Promise – and Problems – of Government Open Data Portals in Meeting Community Information Needs. Frank LoMonte, Brittany Suszan, and Priya Dames. (March 2023). https://uclajolt.com/open-and-shut-the-promise-and-problems-of-government-open-data-portals-in-meeting-community-information-needs/
“Why Don’t We Know Podcast Season 2: The Criminal Justice System”
Season 2 of Why Don’t We Know starts here, with a preview of our season about secrecy in the criminal justice system. Host: Sara Ganim. Editors: Amy Fu, James Sullivan. Original score: Pete Readman. Research: Audrey Mostek, Brittany Suszan Produced by The Brechner Center for Freedom of Information at The University of Florida.
University of Florida Brechner Center. Why Don’t We Know Podcast Season 2. (January 2023) https://whydontweknow.com/2023/01/welcome-to-season-2-2/
We actually won a FERPA appeal – Why Don’t We Know Podcast
We close out Why Don't We Know with a huge victory – a win against the abuse of FERPA, the federal privacy law that often leads to harmful secrets in schools. In this episode, we beat FERPA to get a video of an encounter between a school police officer and a student in Jeannette, Pennsylvania.
“A Human Rights Approach to Justice Technology Procurement”
Georgetown University Law Center. A Human Rights Approach to Justice Technology Procurement. Jason Tashea. (October 2022). https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4246039
- Access to Information & Government Transparency
By outsourcing data management to software companies and adopting algorithmic tools, private entities are limiting public and agency access to information.
“Understanding Policing in America: How Neighborhood and Individual Characteristics Influence Experiences with Police and Perspectives of Policing“
While the study was able to provide some insight into the relationships behind community perceptions of police, a lack
The Data Foundation. Understanding Policing in America: How Neighborhood and Individual Characteristics Influence Experiences with Police and Perspectives of Policing. Stacey Williams, Lori Gonzalez, Phylicia Bediako, Minnie McMillian, Alice Quach, Austin Hepburn. (August 2022). https://www.datafoundation.org/cover-page-understanding-policing-in-america
of locally collected or comparable data from police jurisdictions prevented a deeper analysis. More robust local data may
have shed light onto jurisdictional differences, geographic and cultural differences, and more detailed census tract-level
differences among communities.
“‘Gag order’ against assault: Schools bully young accusers into waiving rights, lawyers say”
While it’s hard to quantify how widespread this practice has become, it doesn’t exist at every school. Of about 25 policies that were obtained by public records requests, three had questionable language. Attorneys shared eight more cases they encountered in their work.
USA Today, ‘Gag order’ against assault: Schools bully young accusers into waiving rights, lawyers say. (June 2022). https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2022/06/02/schools-students-federal-rights-rape-cases/9775181002/
“Tampa Police Department is now concealing neighborhood crime data. A national crime-tracking group says it’s a public safety risk.
TPD used Marsy’s Law as the reason for changing the data, but the law does not support TPD’s changes.”
The legal issue here is that, as Suszan points out, within Marsy’s Law, there’s no provision that says that general public crime information should be affected by the law. Marsy’s Law for Florida, the group that pushed to bring the bill into law, even said so in a press release in 2019.
CL Tampa Bay Creative Loafing, Tampa Police Department is now concealing neighborhood crime data. A national crime-tracking group says it’s a public safety risk. (January 2022). https://www.cltampa.com/news/tampa-police-department-is-now-concealing-neighborhood-crime-data-a-national-crime-tracking-group-says-its-a-public-safety-risk-12734473
“12 News Investigates: Data analyst frustrated with JPD’s slow response to records requests”
She says such public data as major crimes logs and 911 call data are important public resources. They help citizens evaluate the effectiveness of their police force. And they highlight problem areas for crime trends and response times. “This is all public information. You’re only doing a disservice to your public if you’re only going to talk about your problems behind closed doors.”
WJTV, 12 News Investigates: Data Analyst frustrated with JPD’s slow response to records requests. (July 2021). https://www.wjtv.com/news/12-news-investigates/12-news-investigates-data-analyst-frustrated-with-jpds-slow-response-to-records-requests/
“A Call for Researchers to Embrace Robust, Open Crime Data” in The Criminologist – The Official Newsletter of the American Society of Criminology
Access to accurate and timely data on crime is important for any city wanting to uphold and improve policing. Unfortunately, although such data is increasingly being collected by cities, access to it is increasingly being restricted by private companies or by cities themselves, making it difficult if not impossible for researchers and policy analysts to do their jobs.
SUSZAN, B. (2020). A Call for Researchers to Embrace Robust, Open Crime Data. The Criminologist – The Official Newsletter of the American Society of Criminology, 45(2), 7-10. doi: https://www.asc41.com/Criminologist/2020/ASC-Criminologist-2020-03.pdf
“How private contractors are taking over data in the public domain” in Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting.
Sometimes, governments pay the companies to put the data into a useful format; other times, they turn over the data, get it back from the company in a useful format and give republishing rights to the company, which can then sell the data, laws and documents to the public. The bottom line is good for the vendors, which can make millions of dollars from the sale of public information. But the public, who paid for the information to be developed in the first place, often is left on the outside, unable to get to the information as quickly as the private vendor, if they can get it at all, without paying for it.
Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, How private contractors are taking over data in the public domain. (January 2017). https://www.revealnews.org/article/how-private-contractors-are-taking-over-data-in-the-public-domain/
“Without a trace: How a misfired Florida law makes crimes disappear” in the University of Florida’s Brechner Center official blog on Medium.
Sharing this kind of crime data with the public alerts residents of crimes on their streets, empowering them to protect themselves and their families. In addition, demonstrating crime data transparency creates a police-community feedback loop that increases accountability and allows the police and community to work together to prevent crimes from happening, to lower the crime rate, and to solve crimes.
Without a trace: How a misfired Florida law makes crimes disappear (February 2020). https://medium.com/@UFbrechnercenter/without-a-trace-how-a-misfired-florida-law-makes-crimes-disappear-a6b7eb49d0f4
“Data on the crime beat. Conversations with data: #27” in DataJournalism.com’s conversations with data.
Journalists (and the public) have the right to access data in a timely manner and machine readable format — especially if a government vendor already has access.
Data on the crime beat. Conversations with data: #27 (May 2019). https://datajournalism.com/read/newsletters/data-on-the-crime-beat
“Motorola Solutions Cuts Socrata Out of Crime Mapping Tool” in GovTech.
News of the split between Socrata and Motorola Solutions was disconcerting for some, such as market developer Brittany Suszan of SpotCrime, who feared the loss of a major open data resource. She said the partnership was a major step for open data, and she pointed out a trend of large corporations acquiring crime-mapping sites like hers…
GovTech, “Motorola Solutions Cuts Socrata Out of Crime Mapping Tool”, (April 2019). https://www.govtech.com/biz/Motorola-Solutions-Cuts-Socrata-Out-of-Crime-Mapping-Tool.html
“Police Open Crime Data to Increase Trust with the Public” in GovTech.
Opening data is a way to increase public trust, said Brittany Suszan of SpotCrime.com, but there’s a lot of work left to be done on behalf of law enforcement. “We’re hopeful the White House roundtable will be a giant step toward open crime data and transparency within police agencies nationwide, especially those who have notoriously been closed with crime data,” she said. “To our knowledge, there is currently no open crime data feed available for some of the agencies listed taking part in the roundtable.”
GovTech, “Police Open Crime Data to Increase Trust with the Public”, (June 2015). https://www.govtech.com/em/safety/Police-Open-Crime-Data-Increase-Trust-Public.html
“As SpotCrime grows, fight for police data transparency remains” in Technical.ly Baltimore
The Baltimore-based startup uses data released by police departments to provide crime alerts via email. In working to get access to that data, Drane is also working for increased openness.If we increase transparency and all these police departments make the data public, that lowers the value proposition of SpotCrime,” he said. As it stands, however, the company hasn’t worked itself out of a job.
Technical.ly Baltimore, ‘As SpotCrime grows, fight for police data transparency remains’, (December 2015). https://technical.ly/baltimore/2015/12/04/spotcrime-grows-fight-police-data-transparency-remains/
“What is Your City’s Crime Data Transparency Score?” in GovTech.
If data is open, people can share it, make new tools and discoveries that couldn’t have been made otherwise. “The more outlets there are for people to access this information,” she said, “the more people that will be informed and in turn the safer that community will become.”
GovTech, “What is Your City’s Crime Data Transparency Score?” (April 2015). https://www.govtech.com/data/What-is-Your-Citys-Crime-Data-Transparency-Score.html
“Disputes over crime maps highlight challenge of outsourcing public data” in Poynter.
Davis expects more disputes and litigation as governments increasingly entrust public data to private companies, especially in states where public-records laws fail to clarify contractors’ obligation to share information. He said only a handful of state laws even contemplate the possibility that public record keeping may be outsourced. “These are laws written in the age of manila envelopes and the typewriter,” Davis said. “This is one of a dozen different issues where technology has raced in front of the law.”
Poynter, Disputes over crime maps highlight challenge of outsourcing public data’, (May 2013). Retrieved from https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2013/disputes-over-crime-maps-highlight-challenge-of-outsourcing-public-data/
Brittany Suszan 