If you want to know how often Rutland City Police officers use force in a given month; or how often they attend community meetings, that information is now just a mouse click away.
A new data portal the department has been preparing is now open to the public. It’s part of a nationwide effort to help police departments across the country boost transparency.
Rutland is one of more than 20 police departments taking part in what’s called the White House Police Data Initiative.
It’s an offshoot of President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, an effort to help communities better understand specific policing challenges and enhance community engagement. Better use of data and technology has been a major focus.
In Rutland City, for example, the police department’s new public portal shows detailed information of when and why an officer uses force. The age, race, and gender of both the police officer and the subject are included as is what type of force was used.
Rutland City’s Acting Police Chief David Covell says the department has made a concerted effort to be more data-driven for the past three years and being able to show this type of data to the public is a good next step.
“When it comes to use-of-force data some people in the public may have some preconceptions out there as far as the Rutland City police officers' utilization of force. So whatever their preconceptions may be, they can go on the site, they can look at the data themselves and draw their own conclusions,” says Covell.
"People in the public may have some preconceptions out there as far as the Rutland City police officers' utilization of force.... (but now) they can go on the site, they can look at the data themselves and draw their own conclusions." - David Covell, Rutland City Acting Police Chief
The data now on the portal is from the first six months of this year and will be regularly updated.
Covell says they hope to eventually publish detailed information concerning arrests and traffic stops in Rutland City. That phase has been slowed by some technical hurdles and privacy concerns.
“We want to be open and transparent with our data,” says Covell. “But we also feel we need to protect and respect the privacy of victims.”
Besides sharing data, Bradley GoodHale, a Crime Analyst with the Rutland Police Department, takes part in a weekly conference call with other participating police departments including: Dallas, Seattle, Philadelphia and Los Angeles, to name a few.
While Rutland is by far the smallest department in the White House Police Data Initiative and the only New England police department, David Covell says the information exchange has been helpful.
