Groundbreaking Criminal Justice Data Tools Coming to Rochester Police Department and Monroe County District Attorney’s Office

New dashboards will make district attorney and police data public and track goals set by leaders and community

Monroe County, New York (March 7, 2022) – The Monroe County District Attorney’s Office, the Rochester Police Department (RPD), leaders from the community, and Rochester-based nonprofit organization Measures for Justice (MFJ) announced today that a new criminal justice data tool—Commons—is coming to Monroe County. The groundbreaking data platform makes accurate, local criminal justice data available to the public and tracks policy goals set by the Monroe D.A.’s Office, the RPD, and community leaders.

“The criminal justice system must be transparent and responsive to the needs of the community,” says Irshad Altheimer, associate professor of criminal justice at Rochester Institute of Technology and member of the Monroe County Community Advisory Board developing the Commons dashboards. “Commons is an important tool for community members who seek to better understand the criminal justice system and reshape how it serves us.”

Commons is a free and public criminal justice data dashboard that allows users to:

• Track monthly data on how cases flow through RPD and the District Attorney’s Office.
• Follow progress toward criminal justice goals set by community representatives, the District Attorney’s Office and RPD.
• Observe trends across monthly and yearly measures.
• Break down data by demographics like race and ethnicity, sex, age, etc.
• Share findings directly with policymakers and media.

“The Monroe County District Attorney’s Office is proud to partner with Measures for Justice to make the MCDA Commons dashboard available to the public,” said Sandra Doorley, Monroe County District Attorney. “The work we are doing gives an independent look at our data and this dashboard is an important step to increase transparency. Providing this data in a user-friendly model will allow the entire community to see a comprehensive picture of what occurs within the District Attorney’s Office. I look forward to further collaboration and seeing the final presentation of our data.”

The District Attorney’s Office will work with MFJ to display its data and goals on the Monroe D.A. Commons. The platform will go live and be available for public use beginning in summer 2022.

MFJ is also working with the RPD to publish its data and goals on the RPD Commons platform, which will be available to the public in 2023. RPD will be one of the first police departments in the country to pilot a new set of national police measures that were developed by MFJ over three years with input from community leaders and police departments.

“It is our mission to promote positive, systemic and structural change by providing transparency and collaborative leadership,” said Rochester Mayor, Malik D. Evans. “This project aligns with that mission and enhances our already robust efforts to provide public safety information on the Rochester Police Department Open Data Portal. It is critical that citizens trust the government that serves them as we work to reduce violence and improve public safety in our community.”

“The Rochester Police Department understands that in order to best serve our city, we must continue to commit ourselves to transparency and accountability,” says RPD Interim Chief, David Smith. “Measures for Justice has developed a new model for bringing the community and police together. The RPD Commons pilot will leverage our data as an asset providing deeper insight, narrative, and context around jointly defined metrics to help us protect the city that we love and ensure that residents are safe and thriving.”

MFJ has been working closely with a Community Advisory Board (CAB) to represent the voice of Monroe County’s community members. The CAB acts as an advisory body for the Commons project in discussions with the District Attorney’s Office and RPD about the criminal justice system and police department and their impact on racial, economic, social, and historical inequity in Monroe County and Rochester, in order to help set data-driven goals.

The CAB associated with the RPD pilot will comprise a subset of members currently serving on the CAB associated with the Monroe D.A. Commons. This subset of members will have a Rochester-specific focus.

“The Commons CAB is committed to making the Commons project sustainable by working closely with the Monroe D.A.’s office and RPD,” says Dr. Rashid Muhammad, JustCause (formerly Volunteer Legal Services Project of Monroe County), member of the Monroe County CAB. “We are concerned citizens and everyday leaders who are committed to ensuring that the dashboards are accurate, relevant, and customized to meet the needs of our county.”

Monroe County is part of a larger network of counties and cities across the country to implement Commons as a way to bring data transparency to the local criminal justice system. Yolo County, CA, was the first to launch its public data tool in 2021. East Baton Rouge Parish, LA, Bernalillo County, NM, Jackson County, MO, and West Sacramento, CA, will launch their own Commons tools over the next two years.

“Commons puts data directly into the hands of the leaders who can make change, bringing transparency and accountability to the criminal justice system,” said Amy Bach, CEO and founder of Measures for Justice. “This is an opportunity to build trust and accountability for all communities.”

Measures for Justice is a national, non-profit organization based in Rochester, NY, with a mission to change the future of criminal justice by developing tools that help communities and the institutions that serve them reshape how the system works.

Measures for Justice is leading a movement to change the future of criminal justice by developing tools that help communities and the institutions that serve them reshape how the system works. Since 2011, Measures for Justice has worked with communities, courts, prosecutors, and police to shine a light on what criminal justice looks like nationwide; collaborated to standardize and improve criminal justice data nationwide; and created tools, provided services, and led research to help create a criminal justice system that is fully transparent, accessible, and accountable.