What's next
The nation’s current approach to public safety relies too heavily on arrests without a full accounting of the social and financial costs associated with this widespread practice. The launch of Arrest Trends marks Vera’s most recent effort to reduce the footprint of policing, this time by unlocking key policing data and thus elevating the narrative of overreliance on arrests and the need for viable alternatives. In this iteration of Arrest Trends, Vera expands the tool by:
- developing a “create your own report” function, whereby users can explore specific research questions and access comprehensive arrest information on an agency or location of their choice;
- enabling Arrest Trends visuals to be embedded into other mediums, including social media platforms;
- incorporating census data at the agency level to present arrest disparities across demographic groups at a more localized level;
- integrating Law Enforcement Management and Statistics (LEMAS) data to inform how agency size, priorities, training, infrastructure, management, and other characteristics impact arrests; and
- prioritizing the development of these features based on user experiences and the field’s most pressing needs.