The goal is to allow users to access near real-time analysis of disparities between how crime actually occurs in our city and how it is portrayed in the media. They have plans to add the ability to compare the reporting to crime incident data from the Chicago Police Department, call for police service data from the Office of Emergency Management & Communications. To measure violence against women, the team also plans to add aggregate data from survivors seeking the services of domestic violence and sexual assault service providers.

The audience for this project is community members, policymakers, and the media itself. Their goal is to empower communities and policymakers with the tools to seek reform of media practices. For the news media they hope this deep dive analysis of their work helps to motivate changes from within.

Interview with a project leader

Project leader
Tracy Siska
Founder and Executive Director of the Chicago Justice Project

How did you come up with the idea for this project?

The project was motivated by the work I know is being done at Chi Hack Night.

How did Chi Hack Night help?

Chi Hack Night presented a space where a nonprofit can bring a project and recruit very talented developers & data analysts to come together and work on a project.

What was the impact of your project?

The impact will not be felt for a couple years however, research partnerships have already started to sprout up.

What did you learn from this project?

Just how difficult it is to develop a project of this scale.

More on this project

• Chi Hack Night Presentation
• Digital Infrastructure/Data
• https://chicagojustice.org/2013/05/20/violence-against-women-reporting/