2016 – Smart Chicago

Meeting 1: Notes from Police Accountability Mt. Vernon Baptist Church JLM Life Center

Smart ChicagoFebruary 2, 2016

The Smart Chicago Collaborative is documenting the four community forums hosted by the Chicago Police Accountability Task Force and held across the city in the month of February.

The purpose of the meetings were to provide residents the opportunity to speak or submit written comments on improving the accountability, oversight and training of Chicago’s police officers.

We sent a number of people to this first meeting, held at Mt. Vernon Baptist Church JLM Life Center at 2622 W. Jackson Boulevard:

Three text documenters: see their notes here

Two videographers (Community TV Network, video here)

One photographer (Daniel X. O’Neil, images here, download them all here in hi res.

The meeting was conducted by the Chicago Police Accountability Task Force. The Task Force itself also videotaped this meeting — see that here.

All of this material is posted under Creative Commons 4.0 license. You are free to use it for any purpose, with attribution.

How we do it

Here’s a look into our documentation process.

CTVN mentor films the speakers:

While an apprentice gets the wide shot:

Our documenters filled in a back row:

And one also filled out a few comment cards that were read by the moderator.

Smart Health Center Navigators Assisting in Nutrition and Weight Loss Programming at Fantus Clinic

Smart ChicagoFebruary 2, 2016

Here’s an update on our work at Cook County Health System General Medicine Center at Fantus Clinic over the last few weeks.

Health Navigator Zaundra Boyd has been helping nutritionist Carole O’Neil and Dr. Caroline Poku as they develop and deliver nutrition counseling to overweight patients with diabetes. She creates materials, interfaces with patients and shares her own story of health. She’s worked with dozens of patients who express a need for better self-management weight-loss tips because of their history of non-adherence to eating plans, contributing to their erratic blood glucose and pressure readings.

Americorps National Health Corps member Anne Lin is also helping out with this program. She teaches about weight loss apps like MyPlate for people with lower digital skills and helps build a weight history graph with each patient. The basic idea is to work with them to think back on their life, and try to identify factors that may have contributed to weight gain or loss in the past. This self-reflection helps them understand the program and feel a measure of control.

Americorps National Health Corps member Katie Reed does a cooking segment in the Diabetes class for Spanish-speaking patients at Fantus on Thursdays. She researches meals and demonstrates healthy eating. She works with Dr. Melody Christians and Dr. Martinez as they plan their lessons. Katie discusses whether or not they like the dish, if they can replicate it at home, and what they would want to add to or change about each recipe.

A Twitter-Based Review Crime & Punishment in Chicago

Smart ChicagoFebruary 1, 2016

Introduction

This is the raw content for a set of tweets we published today about our Crime & Punishment in Chicago project.

Our April 2014 Crime & Punishment in Chicago project is an index of criminal justice data: http://crime-punishment.smartchicagoapps.org/

We partnered with @CJPJustProj and Supreme Chi-Town Coding Crew from @freegeekchicago. The code is on Github, but the research is what matters.

This was a classic ecosystem project— we provided revenue, tech, and training for important journalists, researchers, and developers.

The intrepid @CivicWhitaker served as project manager for Crime & Punishment in Chicago: http://crime-punishment.smartchicagoapps.org/

We tracked data sources into 8 stages, from commission of a crime all the way to prison. We aggregate sources & discuss collection of data.

Then we categorize the data as “Open”, “FOIA”, or inaccessible. We cover status in Chicago, and highlight the best practice nationally.

Sections

Victimization: http://crime-punishment.smartchicagoapps.org/ victimization.html. Many crimes go unreported. @TheJusticeDept made the NCVS to estimate the #s: http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=dcdetail&iid=245

Calls for service: http://crime-punishment.smartchicagoapps.org/callforservice.html. The @ChicagoOEMC1 publishes no bulk data about calls for service.

The @CJPJustProj has Chicago calls for service data from 2008-2012: http://chicagojustice.org/foi/data-sets-available-for-download/calls-for-police-service

The @DallasPD releases comprehensive call for service data: http://www.dallaspolice.net/MediaAccess/Default.aspx. Includes units responding, link to map, and status

Incidents: http://crime-punishment.smartchicagoapps.org/incidents.html. The @Chicago_Police crime incident data is exemplary cc/ @chicagocdo @CityChicagoCIO

Arrests: http://crime-punishment.smartchicagoapps.org/arrest.html. No info about arrestees is published in Chicago.

Henrico County @henriconews makes arrest data available online: http://randolph.co.henrico.va.us/public-data-access/searcharrest.aspx

Prosecute: http://crime-punishment.smartchicagoapps.org/prosecute.html. State’s Attorney publishes no data online and we do not know what data they collect.

The State’s Attorney’s Office has been ruled to be exempt from FOIA cc/ @KimFoxxforSA @DonnaMore + @SAAnitaAlvarez: http://crime-punishment.smartchicagoapps.org/prosecute.html

Jail: http://crime-punishment.smartchicagoapps.org/jail.html. Info on the 8,900 inmates in Cook County Jail cc/ @TomDart

Cook County Inmate Locator (http://www2.cookcountysheriff.org/search2/). Some of this data is used by the 26th and California Project (http://26thycalifornia.recoveredfactory.net/)

Raw Cook County Jail API via Supreme Chi-Town Coding Crew: https://github.com/sc3/cookcountyjail/wiki/API-guide. Huge, important work.

Courts: http://crime-punishment.smartchicagoapps.org/court.html. The @CJPJustProj obtained 5 years of conviction data: http://www.chicagojustice.org/foi/data-sets-available-for-download/cook-county-court-data

This @CJPJustProj data was used in our Convicted in Cook project: http://convictions.smartchicagoapps.org/, again on concert with @freegeekchicago

Prison: http://crime-punishment.smartchicagoapps.org/prison.html. The IL Dep. of Corrections provides inmate search: http://www.illinois.gov/idoc/offender/pages/inmatesearch.aspx.

No bulk prison data is available in Illinois.

Oregon publishes prison data here: https://data.oregon.gov/browse?q=Prison%20&sortBy=relevance&utf8=%E2%9C%93. Includes forecasts & census of prison populations and admissions.

More work needed

If you are inspired by this project, or have any updates, please contact us.

A Fresh Look at Crime & Punishment in Chicago, our April 2014 website with Chicago Justice Project and FreeGeek Chicago

Smart ChicagoFebruary 1, 2016

Tomorrow is the first public meeting of the Chicago Police Accountability Task Force. According to their website, their primary mission is “to lay the foundation for the rejuvenation of trust between the police and the communities that they serve by facing hard truths and creating a roadmap for real and lasting transparency, respectful engagement, accountability and change.” In light of the launch of the taskforce, we’re bringing attention to our comprehensive website exploring the criminal justice system in Chicago— Crime and Punishment in Chicago, an index of criminal justice data in the region.

In April 2014, the Smart Chicago Collaborative launched Crime & Punishment in Chicago as part of our Civic Works Project, a program funded by the Knight Foundation and the Chicago Community Trust to spur and support civic innovation in Chicago.

Our essential partners were Chicago Justice Project, a nonprofit research organization, and FreeGeek Chicago‘s Supreme Chi-Town Coding Crew (SC3).

The core belief undergirding this project is that crime incident reports— the ubiquitous dots on many maps we’ve seen in this city going back decades— were not enough to create communion between the police and the people they serve.

We believe that access, skills, and data are key elements in a just society. In light of tomorrow’s meeting, and the three other meetings to be held this month, we are calling new attention to Crime & Punishment in Chicago and we will be tweeting about it here.

First Public Forum of the Police Accountability Task Force at JLM Life Center

Smart ChicagoJanuary 29, 2016

Throughout the month of February, the Chicago Police Accountability Task Force is hosting four community forums across the city to provide residents the opportunity to speak or submit written comments on improving the accountability, oversight and training of Chicago’s police officers.

The first of these forums is this Tuesday, February 2, 2016: @ 5:30 pm – 9:00 pm at JLM Life Center, 2622 W. Jackson Blvd., Chicago, IL 60612. More info, from the Task Force website:

5:30 PM Doors open/Registration
6:00 PM Overview of Task Force and Working Groups
7:00 PM Public testimony
9:00 PM Forum concludes

The Task Force looks forward to hearing directly from members of the public regarding the issues of police oversight and accountability.

Details:

People wishing to comment at the forum can sign up in person at the event.
Those who wish to submit written comments may do so at the forum.
In order to accommodate as many speakers as possible, comments will be limited to two minutes.
Signs and other large objects will not be allowed in the meeting room.
Video will be available on this website as soon, etc.
If you are unable to attend the forum, you can submit your comment or question via our online form.

If you need any help submitting comments, you can get help at a nearby Chicago Public Library or other public computer center.

Two Projects in our Justice Program Covered in U.S. News & World Report

Smart ChicagoJanuary 27, 2016

Today two of our Justice projects, Crime & Punishment in Chicago and Youth-Led Tech, were covered in a Washington Whispers item in U.S. News & World Report: Justice: There’s an App for That. Here’s a snip:

In Chicago, however, there are vivid examples of systemic and cultural challenges to the public’s right to know, even when the information is available.

*

Smart Chicago, a tech-based organization in the Windy City, tracks information from Chicago law enforcement – “the entire flow, from the commission of a crime to the person going to jail,” says Dan X. O’Neil, its executive director. “The impetus was that the city of Chicago publishes an enormous amount of crime data” that can be used to examine trends, The organization is also teaching computer coding and website development to kids in “neighborhoods most affected by violence and crime,” he adds. “That, we think, is one solution to mass incarceration and hopelessness and crime.”

Year: 2016