SpotCrime - The Public's Crime Map

Police budgets are used not only to hire officers, but also to purchase tech from companies to aid in police work. Anything from body cams to surveillance tech to in-car computers to RMS/CAD systems are typically hired out to a private vendor company rather than created and maintained in house by the police departments themselves. We came across a paper by Elizabeth E Joh published at the NYU School Law Review titled ’The Undue Influence of Surveillance Technology Companies on Policing’ . Joh specifically focused on the influence surveillance companies have over police departments which adversely affects policing leaving consequences for civil liberties and police oversight. This same concept can be applied to police vendors hired to house police data in Records Management System (RMS) and Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) systems. These vendor systems are in charge of a trough of public data - from arrest records to body cam footage to crime blotters to use of force to police reports. Th...

In 2019, we published an op-ed at the University of Florida Brechner Center Freedom of Information outlining the issues Marsy’s Law has caused in the collection of public crime information. Two years later, Marsy's Law in Florida continues to take its toll on police transparency. Many other states have implemented their own version of Marsy’s Law without creating problems related to police transparency now faced in Florida. It appears other states have found ways to discern between the intent of Marsy’s Law to protect victims rights to privacy, while also making sure the public has access to pertinent information related to crime, policing, and government transparency. Luckily since our op-ed, we have not run into any other notable police agencies using Marsy’s Law as a blanket exemption to releasing public crime blotter information. However, the original three agencies - Polk County Sheriff, Pasco County Sheriff, and Lake County Sheriff - are still not making crime blotter inform...