The Policing Project is hosted by the Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG), a human rights statistics organization. HRDAG's evidence of abuse by government and other forces has been key to successful prosecutions in international courts and in deportation proceedings against war criminals residing in the US. The Policing Project has created new tools that provide critical information about US policing. This work draws on decades of experience analyzing human rights abuses around the world.The Policing Project will gather and analyze data from multiple sources, including an original field survey, to provide the first global view of police-civilian interactions—beginning with Oakland, California. The HRDAG Policing Project improves on existing research in three important ways:
- 360-degree view. Most studies of police-citizen interaction focus on just one type of interaction, such as stop-and-frisks or shootings, or just one part of a community. We’ll do better: the Policing Project will collect detailed, representative data on all types of police encounters, with all types of people, in all types of neighborhoods. With this global view, we can look more carefully at the origins of racial disparities in policing, with an eye to solutions.
- Counting the uncounted. HRDAG researchers pioneered the use of multiple systems estimation, a statistical technique that rigorously estimates the “dark number” of unreported killings by employing multiple data sources. Nationwide, we estimate that at least 28% of deaths in police custody, and perhaps as many as half, go unreported. This is why it's vital to collect multiple data sources. No other research team does this.
- Community partners. If we achieve full funding, we can create tools, and train citizen scientists in Oakland and elsewhere, to collect and analyze their own data. When communities are empowered to create and control their own data, community organizations have leverage to push for increased police accountability. HRDAG has a strong track record partnering with activists around the world.
The project is undertaking a crowdfunding campaign to support its efforts.