Data Journalism
Using data analysis to find investigative storylines
As a data and documentary reporter for Carnegie-Knight News21, I produced a short-form documentary and digital story in our newsroom’s national project on policing in 2022. I analyzed government records and police training data by coding in R. I reviewed data for more than 750 police training academies and found what percentage of their programs were spent on de-escalation training and other topics. This analysis revealed outliers and led to investigative storylines. My research and original data analysis drove me and my team to Indiana, where I individually produced, filmed and edited a documentary based on my findings. I also led interviews and reporting efforts and wrote for our team’s digital story. In our published project, we paired the written story and video with an interactive data map. For transparency and data replication purposes, I also created a guide showing how I reached my data conclusions about de-escalation training rates across the country’s police academies. Click the link below to see how I used R to reach my findings.
Major Findings
De-escalation training is recommended by lawmakers, researchers and advocates alike to lessen use-of-force incidents. Despite the large push for the training, the majority of U.S. law enforcement training academies spend less than 2% of their program’s length on de-escalation instruction. Some do not address the subject at all. As requirements vary by state, de-escalation training is inconsistent across training academies, as revealed by the recently released 2018 Census of Law Enforcement Training Academies.
Data Questions, Findings, and Replication
To see how I reached each of these conclusions by coding, click the “Data Analysis” button above.
Despite the large push for the training, the majority of U.S. law enforcement training academies spend less than 2% of their program’s length on de-escalation instruction.
The Georgia State Patrol training academy spends just a single hour on de-escalation training in their 32-week program — the lowest of any academy in the country that offers de-escalation instruction.
Of the 769 academies that responded to the survey, 70% reported completing at least one hour of de-escalation training.
The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department spends 232 hours on de-escalation instruction — the most of any academy in the country. The training makes up 22% of the agency’s 26-week training academy.
72 out of 765 academies said they did not do any de-escalation training on the 2018 CLETA survey. Most of those academies are colleges or universities. However, there are some law enforcement agencies that reported no de-escalation training, including the Miami Police Department (FL), the El Paso Police Department (TX), the Durham Police Department (NC), and the Chapel Hill Police Department (NC).