Camden County Police Participating in Expanding Nationwide Transparency Program

A year-old program aimed at improving the relationship between police departments and communities through greater transparency nationwide is rapidly expanding, and the Camden County Police Department was one of the first to get on board.

The Camden County Police Department is one of 53 jurisdictions across the country that provides information as part of the federal Police Data Initiative, the White House said on Thursday.

The initiative, first announced during President Barack Obama’s appearance in Camden last year, was suggested by the president’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing in a report last year.

It is a voluntary program in which police departments voluntarily released over 90 data sets that have not previously been released to the public.

The types of data include uses of force, pedestrian and vehicle stops, citations and officer involved shootings, among others.

Camden was among the initial 21 police departments that agreed to release this data. In New Jersey, Newark has also agreed to share data. Philadelphia Police are also sharing data.

The goal is to improve the relationship between citizens and police through uses of data that increase transparency, build community trust, and strengthen accountability, according to White House officials.

“We expect this to become closer to the rule than the exception,” Ronald L. Davis, Director of the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services at the Department of Justice, said.

Davis said there are about 18,000 different independent police agencies in the country, and that as more departments participate, more become open to participating.

“As different groups begin to open up, others see it, and see that there is no backlash,” Davis said. “As a result, we’ve seen a rapid increase to 53 agencies participating, because there is no backlash.”

Davis said police departments were initially concerned about possible negative reaction from communities about some of the information shared. The less backlash law enforcement agencies participating in the program have received, the more encouraged other law enforcement agencies have become to participate.

White House officials said local police departments are in control of the type of data they provide in order to expand the base for the type of data provided. If one agency is sharing information others aren’t sharing, and those other agencies see it, they are more likely to share that information themselves.

As of Thursday evening, the Camden County Police Department’s portal was “not identifiable,” according to the Police Data Initiative database. It was unclear as to why on Thursday evening.

For the Newark Police Department’s data, click here.

For the Philadelphia Police Department’s data, click here.

The next step is to figure out how to use the data, officials said.

Local law enforcement leaders, cities, and stakeholders are visiting the White House on Friday to share what they’ve learned about data and transparency, and hone concrete ideas for continuing their work ahead of the 1-year anniversary of the launch of the initiative.

Recommendations were made last year after officials recognized a growing distrust between police and the general public following the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, and less than a month after riots erupted in Baltimore after a man died in police custody.

Another part of the recommendations was the establishment of guidelines concerning the acquisition of surplus military equipment by local law enforcement agencies through a federally funded program.