Check out these police accountability resources. All of them do a great public service and deserve your support. If yours is not listed here or you would like your listing updated — or you know of additional projects that should be included — reach out.
Fatal Encounters
Impartial, comprehensive, and searchable national database of people killed during interactions with law enforcement with 29,000 records
https://fatalencounters.org (tw|fb)
by D. Brian Burghart
Transparent California
California’s largest public pay and pension database
https://transparentcalifornia.com (tw|fb)
by the Nevada Policy Research Institute
CopMonitor SF
A collection of records about local police, sheriffs, and other government actors that are of interest to the public, including victims’ families, activists, civil rights advocates, criminal defense attorneys, public officials, and journalists
https://sfpublicdefender.org/copmonitor/ (tw)
by the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office
Open Justice
California Department of Justice transparency initiative
https://openjustice.doj.ca.gov/ (tw)
by the Office of the Attorney General (California)
OpenOversight
A public, searchable database of law enforcement officers (ICE, CPB, Chicago, NYC, Los Angeles, Oakland, University of California, Berkeley, and more)
https://openoversight.lucyparsonslabs.com (tw|fb)
by Lucy Parsons Labs
Who’s That Cop?
Roster information for Beverly Hills, La Verne, Los Angeles, and San Jose Police Departments
https://whosthatcop.org (tw)
Watch the Watchers
A copwatch tool that publishes public records about the LAPD, including headshot photos
https://watchthewatchers.net/ (tw|fb)
by Stop LAPD Spying Coalition
LAPD Arrest Data Map
Interactive map of 300,000 LAPD arrests from 2019-2022
https://arrests.lacontroller.io/ (tw|fb)
by City Controller of Los Angeles, Kenneth Mejia
People’s Database for Community-Based Police Accountability
Non-public internal resource used for organizing purposes and shared with trusted sources and community members upon request
https://lab.witness.org/berkeley-copwatch-database/ (tw|fb)
by Berkeley Copwatch and WITNESS
Brady List
A public-facing database of information about police misconduct, public complaints, use-of-force reports, and more
https://giglio-bradylist.com/ (related podcast)
by Level Playing Field / Johann Drolshagen
Atlas of Surveillance
Documenting Police Tech with Open Source Research
https://atlasofsurveillance.org (tw|fb|ig)
by Electrontic Frontier Foundation
CAPstat
New York City Federal Civil Rights Lawsuit Data, 2015 to June 2018
https://capstat.nyc (tw|fb)
by Legal Aid Society
The Force Report
Comprehensive statewide database of police use of force in New Jersey
https://force.nj.com (tw|fb)
by NJ Advance Media
Citizens Police Data Project
Collects and publishes information about police misconduct in Chicago
https://cpdp.co (tw)
by Invisible Institute
Profiling the Police
Eyewitness video as a source of data about police abuse
https://elgrito.witness.org (tw|fb)
by El Grito de Sunset Park and WITNESS
Mapping Police Violence
Research collaborative collecting comprehensive data on police killings nationwide to quantify the impact of police violence in communities
https://mappingpoliceviolence.org
by Samuel Sinyangwe, DeRay Mckesson, and Brittany Packnett Cunningham
Police Scorecard
Evaluating the police in every state, including California
https://policescorecard.org (tw)
by Campaign Zero (Samuel Sinyangwe, DeRay Mckesson, and Brittany Packnett Cunningham) and Manifest Interactive
Who Are California’s Criminal Cops?
Database of hundreds of officers convicted of a crime in the last decade
https://extras.mercurynews.com/criminalcops/database/
by The Mercury News
USA Today
Decertified Officers (30,000+ in 44 states)
https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2019/04/24/biggest-collection-police-accountability-records-ever-assembled/2299127002/
by USA TODAY in partnership with Invisible Institute
Buzzfeed
New York Police Misconduct Cases
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kendalltaggart/nypd-police-misconduct-database
by BuzzFeed
Fatal Force
People shot and killed by police in the U.S.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/police-shootings-database/
(2015-2018: original website)
by Washington Post
The Counted
People Killed by Police in the U.S. in 2015 and 2016
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2015/jun/01/the-counted-police-killings-us-database (TW | FB)
by Guardian US
The Appeal
Original journalism covering criminal justice (and other topics)
https://theappeal.org (tw|fb)
These efforts set a high bar for excellence and provide inspiration for the Police Files project.