The Open Government Directive of the Obama administration[2] propelled government agencies to maintain and provide public access to government data and establish mechanisms through which public feedback can be collected and used to evaluate and improve government performance. The President’s Task Force on 21^st Century Policing[3] recommended that law enforcement agencies develop a climate of openness, specifically that law enforcement agencies should increase transparency by collecting and sharing critical data, policies, and procedures with the public. Some agencies publish data on their website or build their own open data portal. Some agencies participate in open data programs such as the Police Data Initiative, which encourages data sharing to foster a culture of transparency and accountability. More than 120 law enforcement agencies from across the U.S. have voluntarily participated in the program.[4]

The challenges associated with collecting criminal justice data have long been recognized. Much of this responsibility has fallen on non-government entities such as universities, researchers, and non-profit organizations. Establishing national trends in policing has been particularly challenging because it can require extensive data collection and manual standardization efforts.[5] This often requires requesting data from individual agencies through state or federal open records laws. These challenges have led to several private non-governmental attempts to collect more complete data.[6] In an effort to better describe police transparency, Vera developed the Police Data Transparency Index.[7] The Policing Project at New York University’s School of Law has developed guidelines for sharing data and transparency.[8] Some of the highest-profile efforts have been around improving data collection on use of force and use of deadly force.

Despite advancements in technology and data systems, the state of knowledge regarding policing and other criminal justice systems is extremely limited. Data still tend to be siloed, challenging to link over time, and poorly standardized across jurisdictions. In assessing this problem, a study by Arnold Ventures recommended that the federal government should develop a National Commission on Criminal Justice Data Modernization. This commission would be responsible for building a roadmap for federal and state governments to improve data quality and collection, creating metrics for reporting on agency transparency, and increasing Bureau of Justice Statistics funding to improve data collection and timely dissemination of findings.[9]

Openly published public safety datasets have been used to study a variety of policing and crime issues, such as predictors and dynamics of crime[10], crime concentration[11] [12], racial disparities in traffic stops[13] [14], police use of force[15], stop and frisk[16], officer decision making and discretion in traffic stops and arrests[17], and de-policing effect following Ferguson[18], among others.

In the absence of open data regulations and compliance, the public, researchers, non-profit organizations, and others have engaged in efforts to compile and publish critical data. For instance, the Washington Post compiles data on officer-involved fatal shootings across the United States.[19] The National Police Misconduct Reporting Project and PoliceMisconduct.net collected data on police misconduct using media reports.[20] Researchers also collected data on officers arrested for misconduct using Google News search.[21]

High-profile actions of transparency and accountability can lead to increased trust in police, although this may differ depending on the race of community members.[22] Another study found that being informed of police performance data affects the public’s trust significantly; the effect was contingent on whether the performance was positive and the community’s predisposition to the police.[23]