Police Data Initiative

“The Police Data Initiative promotes the use of open data to encourage joint problem solving, innovation, enhanced understanding, and accountability between communities and the law enforcement agencies that serve them,” according to its website. The Police Data Initiative, which is supported by the Police Foundation and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, among others, includes more than 200 datasets from over 130 local law enforcement agencies around the country. The Police Data Initiative’s website provides an index to these datasets, ranging from information on traffic accidents and crashes to information on police workforce and demographics. These datasets, which can be downloaded by the public, are intended to help build transparency and increase community trust, promote internal accountability for local police departments, and facilitate data analysis.