MINNEAPOLIS- The Minneapolis Police Department recently introduced a new system for crime statistics that looks to give the public more transparency into the crime and police response.
The database offers several improvements over the old way of finding out crime statistics via MStat. The database allows users to adjust timeframe to view crime statistic on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly breakdown. There is also the option to see the crime statistics on a citywide basis or by looking at a specific neighborhood. Another new feature is that the database allows for a breakdown on the basis of reported crimes and arrest.
There is also a treasure trove of demographic information that breakdowns crime based on both race and gender. The database provides information about some of the specifics of the police procedure, such as how many times a traffic stop led to a search of the vehicle or persons. There is also a breakdown on ‘call disposition’, which indicates such things, including whether or not the perpetrator had left before police arrival or if a booking had occurred.
While the FBI collects data on major crimes, the one Minneapolis rolled out reports the data on all traffic stops. There were nearly 40,000 stops so far in 2017 alone. Of those stops 26.7% involved a white person, 35% were black, Asian and Native American made up about 4% of the stops while the remaining roughly 23% were listed as “other” or “unknown.”
“This is one of those areas when we talk about building trust. We are documenting this information, and it is important for us to put that out, so that our community can take a look at it,” Chief Medaria Arradondo said, “The primary promise I made to our community was that we would eventually release that information. So I think that future discussions will be a little bit more deeper into what is that data telling us in terms of our policing.”
While obviously not the be all end all of statistics, the database could represent a more proactive and transparent Minneapolis Police Department.
