Guide

This guide is intended to serve not as a technical manual but rather as a primer for law enforcement executives interested in the concept of open data. As such, it examines the expectations for increased transparency from members of both the public and the police and offers open data as a means of achieving this end. This guide also introduces the Police Data Initiative, a community of practice designed to support agencies seeking to better inform and engage the public through the release and use of open data. The Police Data Initiative allowed law enforcement executives to connect and engage in a peer-support process with agencies of all sizes across the United States working to release open data sets online.