This project has been rattling around in my head for over a decade, from the time it first dawned on me that there were too many police crimes to keep in mind. There are far too many incidents, far too many bad actors and institutions involved. The sheer volume of death and abuse and corruption is too much to rely on memory alone.
In 2009 and 2010, I was avidly documenting, and coordinating coverage of, the Justice for Oscar Grant Movement, trying to keep up with new police killings and other atrocities as they occurred, but, within a year or two, names, dates, and related facts were starting to slip my mind. I wanted an easily searchable database to keep track of it all, and I figured if I built one, it’d be useful to lots of other folks as well.
A number of great police accountability resources have sprung up since then — after Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson in 2014, and during the cycles of national uprisings since — although none do exactly what I’ve been envisioning all this time. Some do touch on aspects. Most don’t cover Northern California.
And so, it’s time for Police Files to be realized.
After a false start in 2019, when initial fundraising to get the project off of the ground fell short of expectations, it had to be put on the back burner. Things that did get done were brainstorming with like-minded folks locally and across the country, acquiring gigabytes’ worth of related files, and formulating a plan for moving forward. But there wasn’t anything ready to share publicly before funds and time ran out.
Now, I’m hoping that by showing the work as it goes, step by step, by publicly bringing the project from pipe dream to reality, I’ll be more likely to stay ahead of curve on funding, to bank funds in advance to cover further development. And I can afford to do this work for as little as Oakland’s minimum wage.
Over the longer term, this project is way too ambitious for any person to pull off single-handedly, and it would take forever to build on a part-time basis. It is labor intensive to create the technical infrastructure and input massive amounts of data. As the old cliché goes, time is money and money is time, so if you are able to support Police Files financially, please, donate as generously as you are able. If you have experience fundraising and would like to help in that regard, reach out.
What you are viewing now is an interim website, a placeholder while the actual one is developed. Its purpose is to provide updates as to what’s happening, as well as information on how to support the project and get involved. If you have data, expertise, or other resources to contribute, please, get in touch.
Be sure to check out the About page for more details on the vision for Police Files.
This is doable, with your support, and we all know it desperately needs to happen, so let’s do it!
— Dave Id
