Vera Institute of Justice

Overview

Data is an important component of the critical examination of police practices. It can be used to understand systemic racism and injustice and to identify places and situations where intervention is urgently needed. In these reports, Vera presents data from Arrest Trends—a tool that collates and visualizes arrest, victimization, and demographic data—to shed light on some of the most pressing issues in policing. The data shows how efforts to reduce arrests for low-level offenses in two cities—Philadelphia and Denver—have changed the scope of law enforcement. And it reveals how substantial decreases in officers’ use of arrest in the country’s largest cities have not been mirrored in the suburbs. Furthermore, racial disparities in arrests in suburban cities have worsened.