Summary

King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn on Tuesday introduced legislation that would centralize criminal justice data and create a public-facing crime data dashboard to clearly present information related to criminal justice.

Story

King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn on Tuesday introduced legislation that would centralize criminal justice data and create a public-facing crime data dashboard to clearly present information related to criminal justice. The dashboard would be a comprehensive resource, providing figures on arrests, recidivism, diversion, incident response, and case resolution. It would include a map of where the crimes were committed and integrate data from multiple King County agencies.

“Communities across King County are exhausted and alarmed by the continuing rise in crime and deserve greater transparency about both the nature of the crimes being committed and their government’s response,” Dunn said. “Right now, our crime statistics system is fractured, preventing us from having a fully informed public conversation around criminal justice. This revamped data dashboard would present crime data clearly and concisely, while allowing folks to identify relevant patterns such as repeat offenders that are revolving through the justice system.”

The 2019 Pretrial Reform Proviso Workgroup Report performed by a King County workgroup revealed that "criminal legal system agencies’ data systems do not talk to one another” and recommended that King County create an integrated data system. To this end, Dunn’s proposed crime data dashboard would aim to provide transparent and current information that allows the public to easily identify trends and evaluate how criminal justice programs are performing. The new dashboard would combine data from the King County Sheriff’s Office, the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, the Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention, and the Superior and District Courts to create a coherent picture of crime in King County.

The dashboard would be created by a workgroup consisting of representatives from the Department of Public Defense; the Office of Performance, Strategy, and Budget; and the Department of Information Technology, with an implementation plan due to the Council by September 31, 2022.

Dunn’s legislation will be referred to the Law, Justice, Health and Human Services Committee for consideration.