Record Types taxonomy
Examples and descriptions of the Record Types we're collecting.
We use the tags property to add color to a Data Source if there's not a specific enough Record Type.
Police & public interactions
| record_type | description | example |
|---|---|---|
Accident Reports | Records of vehicle accidents, sometimes published so that people involved in an accident can look up the police report. | |
Arrest Records | Records of each arrest made in the agency's jurisdiction. | |
Calls for Service | Records of officers initiating activity or responding to requests for police response. Often called "Dispatch Logs" or "Incident Reports" when published. | |
Car GPS | Records of police car location. Not generally posted online. | none found |
Citations | Records of low-level criminal offenses where a police officer issued a citation instead of an arrest. | |
Dispatch Logs | Records of calls or orders made by police dispatchers. | |
Dispatch Recordings | Audio feeds and/or archives of municipal dispatch channels. | |
Field Contacts | Reports of contact between police and civilians. May include uses of force, incidents, arrests, or contacts where nothing notable happened. | |
Incident Reports | Reports made by police officers after responding to a call which may or may not be criminal in nature. Not generally posted online. | |
Misc Police Activity | Records or descriptions of police activity not covered by other record types. | |
Officer Involved Shootings | Case files of gun violence where a police officer was involved, typically as the shooter. Detailed, often containing references to records like Media Bulletins and Use of Force Reports. | |
Stops | Records of pedestrian or traffic stops made by police. | |
Surveys | Information captured from a sample of some population, like incarcerated people or magistrate judges. Often generated independently. | |
Use of Force Reports | Records of use of force against civilians by police officers. | |
Vehicle Pursuits | Records of cases where police pursued a person fleeing in a vehicle. |
Info about officers
| record_type | description | example |
|---|---|---|
Complaints & Misconduct | Records, statistics, or summaries of complaints and misconduct investigations into law enforcement officers. | |
Daily Activity Logs | Officer-created reports or time sheets of what happened on a shift. Not generally posted online. | none found |
Training & Hiring Info | Records and descriptions of additional training for police officers. | |
Personnel Records | Records of hiring and firing, certification, discipline, and other officer-specific events. Not generally posted online. |
Info about agencies
| record_type | description | example |
|---|---|---|
Annual & Monthly Reports | Often in PDF form, featuring summaries or high-level updates about the police force. Can contain versions of other record types, especially summaries. | |
Budgets & Finances | Budgets, finances, grants, or other financial documents. | |
Contact Info & Agency Meta | Information about organizational structure, including department structure and contact info. | |
Geographic | Maps or geographic data about how land is divided up into municipal sectors, zones, and jurisdictions. | |
List of Data Sources | Places on the internet, often data portal homepages, where many links to potential data sources can be found. | |
Policies & Contracts | Policies or contracts related to agency procedure. |
Agency-published resources
| record_type | description | example |
|---|---|---|
Crime Maps & Reports | Records of individual crimes in map or table form for a given jurisdiction. | |
Crime Statistics | Summarized information about crime in a given jurisdiction. | |
Media Bulletins | Press releases, blotters, or blogs intended to broadly communicate alerts, requests, or other timely information. | |
Records Request Info | Portals, forms, policies, or other resources for making public records requests. | |
Resources | Agency-provided information or guidance about services, prices, best practices, etc. | |
Sex Offender Registry | Index of people registered, usually by law, with the government as sex offenders. | |
Wanted Persons | Names, descriptions, images, and associated information about people with outstanding arrest warrants. |
Jails & Courts specific
Other record types can describe jails and courts, especially from the "info about agencies" category.
| record_type | description | example |
|---|---|---|
Booking Reports | Records of booking or intake into corrections institutions. | |
Court Cases | Records such as dockets about individual court cases. | |
Incarceration Records | Records of current inmates, often with full names and features for notification upon inmate release. |
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