The Board of Police Commissioners’ new dashboard has launched, sharing information about complaints filed against Detroit police officers since 2012.
The dashboard is intended to provide greater transparency to the public about the board’s investigations into police misconduct after years of intense public scrutiny and confusion over the process and policies that authorize the board to take action against police officers accused of wrongdoing.
There have been 16,377 citizen complaints filed since 2012 and 2,358 remain open today, the dashboard shows.
READ MORE: Detroit police board launches new accountability dashboard for citizen complaints
Here’s a step-by-step explanation of how to use the new tool:
WHAT YOU CAN FIND
This is what you will see when you access the database.
The dashboard provides different graphs and charts to visualize the data. Users can hover over the charts and graphs on the dashboard to see more information about the data.
How to search for complaints by downloading data sets
If you want to look at all of the data available for citizen complaints, you will need to download the data from the data portal via the link provided (in very fine print) at the bottom of the dashboard website. It’s the second link you’ll see.
When you click that link, this is the screen you will see: the data portal for DPD Citizen Complaints. Click “view table” for a table of the data or “download” to download a spreadsheet of the data.
How to sort downloaded data
If you click “download” to obtain a spreadsheet of the data, a menu of options will pop up on the left-hand side of the window. This allows you to decide the file type. You will want to click “CSV” to download the spreadsheet version.
After you click “CSV,” a spreadsheet will pop up (depending on your computer settings) and you’ll see an Excel window that looks like this.
The easiest way to locate the status of your complaint is to search by clicking the CTRL + F keys at the same time. This will bring up a small window where you can type in any information to locate it in the spreadsheet. For example, using your complaint report number, you can search the spreadsheet to find out the status.
For example: Here’s what shows up when you search for the BPC number “12-272” and it takes you to the data for that complaint.
How to search for complaints by “view table” option
If you clicked “view table” on the portal’s home screen, you will see this pop up.
As you can see, the data portal’s table does not include the report data or closure dates. It is, however, available when you download the spreadsheet. This is something Civilian Oversight Analyst Mary Barber said the BOPC is working to correct.
On the left hand side of the screen, you can click on the “filter” icon and it will allow you to narrow the data down to certain attributes.
For example, using the same BPC number from earlier, you can filter the data to only show information pertaining to BPC Number 12-272. First, check the box for “BPC Number” and then type in the number.
Here is what it will show you. As shown in the “Finding” column, the allegations in this complaint were exonerated.
Getting definitions
If you want to know what terms like a “BPC Number” or “CCR Number” mean, you can check the home page for the citizen complaint data portal and scroll down to where you’ll find definitions and explanations.
The dashboard updates daily at 6 a.m.
The board welcomes the public’s feedback about the dashboard through the Citizen Complaint Committee.
Residents can file a citizen complaint online, in person at any Detroit police department precinct, or by phone at (313) 596-2499.