Open Police Data is a service available to small and mid-size law enforcement agencies to share information for the public good. Sharing information with the public builds trust and accountability and is a valuable tool in expanding an agencies outreach within their community.
The participating agency is in charge of how much or how little data they wish to share, as well as what datasets they would like to share.
The value of open data is that it is available for public consumption and analysis. By providing data in an "Open Format" individuals or organizations can take and use it for the internal or external study to examine crime and crime prevention. This type of analysis is valuable as a community can provide feedback to an agency which would otherwise be unavailable.
Providing a path for communication and dialog, building trust, and giving the public ownership in their local agency are all goals of the Open Police Data project.
Open Police Data was developed after seeing the value in the Police Data Initative and the success of community engagement and feedback that it achieved. We are simply a repository which provides a simple and easy to use way to display the data. Realizing that some agencies may have the resources to export their data, but not the ability to publish the data online, we provide that tool to present their data in a usable format.
If you are interested in using our service to publish your data, please reach out to us at cliff@wbkl.com
If you are a Spillman Agency, we may have some templates to help export your data. Otherwise, providing your data in a CSV (Comma Separated Value) format is all we need to get started.
There is no cost to participate to have your information hosted.