No, it’s not your imagination — New Haven really does make it harder than most cities do to let the public know basic information about crime and policing.
At least that’s what the Vera Institute concluded in an in-depth study that produced a “Police Data Transparency Index.”
The institute, which performs research about the criminal justice system, dived deep into the policies and performance of 94 local police departments representing over 25 percent of the nation’s population.
New Haven’s was among them. And New Haven ranked near the bottom of the pack, with a score of 21 points out of 100 on cumulative measures of accessibility to data and policies and what in some places are routine dissemination of reports and arrest information.
Click here to see the full report and learn more about the index.
New Haven is in the midst of a search for a new police chief amid calls for reconnecting the department to the community and making it more accountable.
There is a big difference between not having embedded analytics on your website and not being transparent. This group has a theory that PDs aren't transparent and made up absurd criteria and methodology to create an "index" to prove themselves right. Take a look at the criteria for just one of their categories.
https://policetransparency.vera.org/#/trafficpedestrianstops
According to the city's march budget report NHPD has 72 vacancies. Cops have better things to do than spend 10 minutes per interaction populating meta data for some special interest group that's going to hate them no matter what they do. "Sorry you have to wait another half hour for an officer to come to your accident, all the cops are tied up filling out type, source, demographic, search, force and outcomes information from the traffic stop they just did"