Research Tools: A New Database on Police Use of Force and Misconduct in California Makes Public 1.5 Million Pages of Once-Secret Police Records

From UC Berkeley Journalism

Public records about use of force and misconduct by California law enforcement officers — some 1.5 million pages obtained from nearly 500 law enforcement agencies — will now be searchable by the public for the first time thanks to a new database built by UC Berkeley and Stanford University and published today by the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, KQED and CalMatters.

The database — the first of its kind in the nation — will vastly expand public access to internal affairs records that disclose how law enforcement agencies throughout the state handle misconduct allegations as well as uses of police force that result in death or serious injury. The database, funded by the State of California, currently has records from nearly 12,000 cases, including thousands involving police shootings. Every record in the database was released by a law enforcement agency after being redacted in compliance with California’s public records laws. As a result, journalists and members of the public will now be able to search statewide for particular types of misconduct and use-of-force. Police chiefs will be able to use the data to aid in hiring decisions. Researchers will be able to identify trends and pattern.

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The team systematically collected, organized and vetted millions of public records, used emerging technologies such as generative AI to build the database, and created from scratch a searchable user-interface.

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The database released today can now be accessed online via KQED, The San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times and CalMatters. The database does not include audio recordings or videos, and additional steps were taken to redact or remove graphic imagery along with personal information about sexual assault or domestic violence victims.

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Work on the database began in 2018, when journalists in some 40 newsrooms formed the California Reporting Project and began sharing documents obtained through records requests. Early funding to support this work was provided by the Sony Foundation and Roc Nation. In all, reporters sent more than 3,500 public records requests to nearly 700 police departments, district attorney offices, sheriff’s offices, oversight agencies, probation, corrections and coroners all across the state. “The idea was to collaborate among organizations to build up this system, to make it easy to access these public records,’’ said Cheryl Phillips, founder of Stanford’s Big Local News, which specializes in helping local newsrooms incorporate data into their reporting.

Learn More, Read the Complete Launch Announcement

Direct to Database

• via KQED
• via CalMatters

Database also available via LA Times and SF Chronicle.

Filed under: Associations and Organizations, Data Files, Funding, News