Submit data sources

Documenting public records found online

This is for manually submitting a handful of Data Sources. If you'd like to work on our machine learning Data Source Identification pipeline, start here.

Quick start

If you found a good source of data, you can submit it to our database!

1. Check our database to see if we already have the URL you found, or search for it by name here.

2. If it's new to us—thank you! Open the Submit Data Sources form.

3. Fill in the required fields and as many optional fields as you can! This should take 1–5 minutes.

4. Repeat as necessary!

Detailed processes

Submit bulk (10+) Data Sources

If you already have several of Data Sources in a spreadsheet—maybe from a previous project, or because you collected them in bulk—you can submit them to us in any format.

1. Check to see whether there are already Data Sources for the agency you're working on.

2. Optionally, head to the existing Data Sources table and download a CSV to get the most recent format. This will help us import and approve your Data Sources more quickly.

3. Submit your spreadsheet to the "Submit bulk Data Sources or Agencies" form.

Editing Data Sources

If you discover an inaccuracy, you can email [e-mail]. If it's more convenient, you can submit changes via CSV:

1. Head to the Data Sources table.

2. Use the triple-dot button in the menu bar to Download CSV.

3. Open the CSV in the tool of your choice—Excel, Google Sheets, or a dedicated CSV editor.

4. Remove all the rows but the ones you want to change.

5. Save the CSV and upload it to the Bulk form.

We'll import the CSV and make sure the changes are reflected appropriately.

Submit & edit Agencies

Submit an Agency

If you know of a police agency but can't find it in our Agencies table, you can submit it using the "Submit an Agency" form.

Editing Agencies

To make bulk changes, you can use the "Submit bulk Agencies or Data Sources" form. We'll merge your changes using the airtable_uid property.