Open Data Visualized from Police Spreadsheets: A Case Study of Where Force, Race and Space Collided Item

Assets:tables in MS Excel and MS Word, shapefiles in ESRI format; all files ZIPPED<br>Context: This case study called into question police conduct and policy injustice discovered in two American big cities. My path to learn about Indianapolis (IN) and Baltimore (MD) policing patterns and crime events was due to availability of open data focused on use-of-force (UOF). My specific goal was to conduct geospatial data analytics aimed at these two cities using location and other key variables. Two spreadsheets captured small data that laid acceptable statistical groundwork for iterations of exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA). Bivariate scatterplots revealed possible police misconduct. Parallel coordinate plotting – an innovative multivariate tool – was then used to display co-occurrences of plotted UOF and racial variables associated with key police districts in Indianapolis and Baltimore. A final summary visualization sought to cartographically and dramatically compare force and race variables by way of comparative plots, graphs, and maps. I closed with three action items pertaining to a “social-justice” framework for future data-visualization, to the heightening of standards for law enforcement reform, and for a need to make a hypothetical “citizen’s arrest” of police misconduct.