San Francisco's New Top Cop Faces Tough Road Ahead to Mend Racial Tensions

Eric Liu was quoted in ABC News about why the San Francisco police department should release their policy data in order to rebuild trust in the community:

“Everything stems from understanding the data that you have and then opening it to the public,” said San Francisco resident Eric Liu, a New America CA fellow and founder of Bayes Impact, which uses data to address public interest problems. “If San Francisco can do that, then it will actually be a really powerful model for the nation as well.”

A bill that passed in California last year requires each sheriff and police chief to submit a report on justifiable homicides to the U.S. Department of Justice each year. But the first deadline isn’t until next year and the bill doesn’t require reporting information on other civilian complaints, like the use of racial slurs. Chaplin should anonymize and publish all information currently available to the San Francisco Police Department on its website to improve transparency and drive reform, Liu said.

“This is what we need to find the evidence and competence behind their statements of reform,” he said.