Resources

Building on previous research into the Chicago Police Department’s (CPD) gang database, this report analyzes new statistics focused on the rapid expansion of the gang database, the data on the ages of people in the database, and evidence of racial discrimination. It ultimately concludes with an attempt to estimate the overall size of CPD’s gang database and highlights the expansive inclusion of minors and elders and the disproportionately targeted communities of color in Chicago.

In response to community demands for public accountability and for a responsible process of abolition that provides restitution to people harmed by the database, the Policing in Chicago Research Group at the University of Illinois at Chicago carried out an evaluation of the Regional Gang Intelligence Database (RGID). This report outlines what is known about RGID and the questions that remain.

This report documents how girls and transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) youth of color are pushed out of school, uplifts their visions for the schools that they want and deserve and has policy and practice recommendations that school stakeholders can partake in to create schools that are holistic, safe and affirming for girls and TGNC youth of color.

For Native women, calling on law enforcement for protection from violence is often not seen as an option due to mistrust of law enforcement officials, given the US government’s continuing role as the perpetrator of genocide against Native peoples, as well as its ongoing failure to take action to protect reservation-based Native women from violence at the hands of non-Indians.

Chicago has shut down the use of predictive policing models known as the Strategic Subject List (SSL) and Crime and Victimization Risk Model (CVRM). The general areas of concern in the PTV risk model program include: the unreliability of risk scores and tiers; improperly trained sworn personnel; a lack of controls for internal and external access; interventions influenced by PTV risk models which may have attached negative consequences to arrests that did not result in convictions; and a lack of a long-term plan to sustain the PTV models.

Repeated instances of police violence against unarmed civilians have drawn worldwide attention to the contemporary crisis of police legitimacy. Community-oriented policing (COP), which encourages positive, nonenforcement contact between police officers and the public, has been widely promoted as a policy intervention for building public trust and enhancing police legitimacy. To date, however, there is little evidence that COP actually leads to changes in attitudes toward the police. Researchers conducted a randomized trial with a large urban police department and found that positive contact with police—delivered via brief door-to-door nonenforcement community policing visits—substantially improved residents’ attitudes toward police, including legitimacy and willingness to cooperate. These effects remained large in a 21-day follow-up and were largest among nonwhite respondents.

Police departments are adopting body-worn cameras in hopes of improving civilian–police interactions. In a large-scale field experiment (2,224 officers of the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, DC), researchers randomly assigned officers to receive cameras or not. They tracked subsequent police behavior for a minimum of 7 months using administrative data. Results indicate that cameras did not meaningfully affect police behavior on a range of outcomes, including complaints and use of force. This report conclude that the effects of cameras are likely smaller than many have hoped.

This report explains New York City’s new congestion pricing program aimed at reducing private vehicle traffic and increasing funding for public transportation. However, the current plans say nothing about how congestion pricing information will be stored. Absent restrictions, this traffic program can give law enforcement what amounts to a perpetual tracking device for every car in New York. The same concerns also exist for federal law enforcement agencies, including ICE, who would be able to access any data the city and state retain. This report includes reference to privacy-protective models from other countries that can be deployed in New York, minimizing the amount of data collected and the risk to the public.

Data on policing is not always available or accessible, resulting in a paradox of democratic accountability. This report by Jared Knowles, creator and president of Civilytics, examines the issue of data accessibility and ways in which that accessibility can be improved and how data can be used to push for police accountability and reform.