ProPublica: Hate crimes data
Submitted | Aug. 6, 2017 |
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Communications
From: Ken Schwencke
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Minnesota Data Practices Act, I hereby request the following documents:
Any database or other records of hate crimes or crimes evidencing bias of race, color, ancestry, ethnicity, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin or disability reported to or investigated by your agency since Jan. 1, 2010, including, where available, the following fields:
the incident number
date of the incident
whether the crime was against individuals or a business / property
number of victims
race or ethnicity of the victims
gender of the victims
the offense classification
the location of the incident
the bias motivation (anti-black, anti-muslim, etc)
I would like the records in a machine-readable, electronic format if possible. If the records are kept in another format, or kept individually, I would still like copies.
This request is made as part of the Documenting Hate Project, a collaboration involving dozens of news organizations, led by ProPublica. Coverage from the project is compiled at https://projects.propublica.org/graphics/hatecrimes#hatecrime-coverage.
The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.
In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.
Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I would request your response within ten (10) business days.
Sincerely,
Ken Schwencke
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Aug. 6, 2017. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Koeger, Zane (CI-StPaul)
MuckRock
DEPT MR 41487
411A Highland Ave
Somerville, MA 02144-2516
Ken Schwencke:
On behalf of my staff the attached document is a CSV format. This document fulfills you data request.
The data for this request is attached. It is in machine readable CSV format.
Data Includes:
* Case Number (Incident number)
* Date of the incident
* Crime against
* Victim_ID
* Race of the victim
* Gender of victim
* Offense classification
* Location of the incident (Redacted to 100 block)
* Bias motivation
There are a couple factors to note when viewing the data.
* We cannot release the names of victims, a VICTIM_ID is used in place so the analyst can sort by the individual
* Some crimes were assessed to be motivated by multiple bias and each motivation has a record - some individuals are therefore recorded multiple times for the same incident (Their victim_ID is a unique feature that can be used to sort this out).
* Our bias motivation list is set up to identify the motivation, not the victim group - we do not track crimes against specific groups in the way the request is formatted. This list of our bias motivation values includes:
* Age
* Ethnicity
* Handicap
* Other
* Racial
* Religious
* Sexual/Orientation
(There are no additional sub-fields to amplify these values)
[badge 238]
Sergeant Zane Koeger
St. Paul Police Department
Technology Unit
367 Grove Street
Saint Paul, MN 55101
Desk: 651.266.5523
Cell: 651.216.7443
Zane.Koeger@ci.stpaul.mn.us<mailto:Zane.Koeger@ci.stpaul.mn.us>
From: Ken Schwencke
Sergeant Koeger,
Thanks so much for your help with this request! I really appreciate it.
Sincerely,
Ken Schwencke