During a recent BIDS seminar, Dr. Kyla Bourne (BIDS-Accenture Data Science Research Scholar) discussed the absence of a centralized public database designed to track how prosecutors respond to alleged racially-biased misconduct by law enforcement colleagues on a large scale. She explained how her work will make a significant contribution by establishing the first national database of its kind.
Kyla has initiated the process of collecting data from prosecutorial declination memos, reading, and coding them. She clarified that her aim is not to comment on the accuracy of the events, but rather to examine the official reporting of events and the corresponding official responses. She highlighted a specific use case involving data from King County, WA.
The potential beneficiaries of such a database span a wide range of professionals, from policymakers to journalists.
