Data from the City of Phoenix illustrates incidents Phoenix Police where an officer has used their gun in the line of duty.
The map presents 120 cases from 2017 to present, throughout the city with descriptions of victims as well as listed injuries and fatalities.
Click on the link below to view map:
A trend can be seen as clusters of incidents are shown within the Downtown/Southside/Westside areas of Phoenix with neighborhoods like the Warehouse District, Maryvale, and Central City being hubs for these incidents.
When Rebecca Engida Wondimu, a resident of South Phoenix, was shown the data she said, "I'm happy that the number of police shootings is low but also I still feel like south Phoenix is an area that is contested by police officers. Even if they aren't killing anyone, there's still an overkill on their treatment towards the residents."
Growing up in South Phoenix, Wondimu says that she heard stories from people in her community about police misconduct. The data displayed in the map shows about 10 incidents that occur on Phoenix's southside. What the map does not show are the numerous events where an officer hasn't used their gun as a weapon. Data on these incidents is not available in the city's online commons.
As the description for the data set reads, "This represents Phoenix Police Department officer-involved shooting incidents. More than one officer may discharge their weapon during the same incident. Accidental discharges, discharges at animals, and discharges at objects where there was not an active threat by a subject are not included in this data set," meaning that the public is presented information on incidents solely relating to gunfire from Phoenix PD.
"I think having data helps see who actually is getting detained and who's getting arrested," said Sandra Cornejo a community member adding, "who is actually being criminalized." Cornejo expressed that this data is valuable in being able to have visibility on record. She says that the transparency to see who creates an environment much more accessible to hold police officers accountable.
Within the data set, users can learn more information about a particular incident, as it provides details on the date, time as well as the gender and race of the individual suffering injuries.
The City of Phoenix hosts a multitude of data on its open data commons online, where the public can search for many city-related data sets. This is part of the city's commitment to transparency, as the City declares on its site.
"The city of Phoenix firmly believes that transparency in government encourages efficiency, as well as accountability to residents. More importantly, the availability of city data supports innovation that can be applied to make Phoenix an even better place. We invite you to explore and learn what Phoenix is all about."
This set titled "Officer-Involved Shooting Incidents" is only one of three available pieces of data on the Phoenix Police Department. The other two include, "Calls for Service" and "Crime Data". The set used with this map was updated last on 11/15/2019, but has no structure on when information is added; this is unlike the "Crime Data" set that is structured by the department to update daily.
The data set does not fully represent what is happening on the ground. Wondimu said, "There's a culture here that [Phoenix Police] don't understand, especially with south Phoenix being predominantly black and Hispanic, having white cops who don't know how to communicate with the community makes things unsafe."
The Phoenix Police Department was contacted but has not commented on the matter.
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