Austin's Public Safety Data Commitment Contributes to City's Bloomberg Data Certification

Public Safety Data Analysis Work Highlighted in City's Certification

Bloomberg Philanthropies announced 16 new cities that achieved 2021 What Works Cities certification, the national standard of excellence in data-driven city governance.

Austin's work on its public safety data commitment contributed to the honor.

Bloomberg highlighted Austin’s Office of Police Oversight, Office of Innovation, and Equity Office, who jointly analyzed APD’s racial profiling data. The joint report will serve as a baseline for future annual analyses. It found that in 2019, Black people made up 14 percent of all motor vehicle stops, 25 percent of all stops resulting in searches, and 25 percent of all stops resulting in arrests, though they comprise just 8 percent of the City’s population. The City has also analyzed 911 call data, finding that 41 percent of police officer time is spent on “Priority 3” calls — meaning that life or property is not at risk — and that 10 percent of all calls were related to mental health in some way.

Read more at the following link:  https://medium.com/what-works-cities-certification/a-data-driven-mindset-helps-austin-reimagine-public-safety-83f670d88c6e