Where Data Meets the People: How Research Fuels Community Engagement at Measures for Justice
Written by: Kayla Belair, Senior Research Associate II, Izaiah Jefferson, Senior Research Associate I, and Keren Stearns, Research Associate I.
At Measures for Justice (MFJ), research isn’t just about crunching numbers—it’s about creating a bridge between complex data and real communities striving for transparency and accountability in the justice system. Behind every data point we publish is a rigorous, human-centered process powered by our Research team and informed by the voices of the people we serve.
Meet the Research Team At MFJ
The MFJ Research department is divided into three teams, each playing a key role in transforming raw criminal justice data into something understandable, actionable, and impactful. Our team includes criminologists, political scientists, psychologists, and data scientists—many with direct experience working with justice systems and community organizations. They bring both subject matter expertise and practical knowledge to data management, assessment, and stewardship.
Research and Data Management (RDM)
RDM is where the heavy lifting starts. This team ensures the data we collect is clean, complete, and logically consistent. Think of them as the editors of a complex story—making sure the timeline makes sense (no arrests before crimes), translating legal language into MFJ’s standardized codes, and organizing details so that they can be filtered and analyzed across platforms like Commons for Prosecutors and Police.
Data Science and Assessment (DS&A)
Before we even start writing the story, DS&A checks the quality of the paper and ink. They assess new datasets to make sure they’re usable: Are the right fields there? Is the format compatible? Is the data complete enough to be trustworthy? DS&A also builds tools that make it easier for the rest of the team to code and work more efficiently, and help us understand how the data the public sees changes if we adjust our measurement or processes.
Research and Data Stewardship (RDS)
This team acts as both translator and teacher. They distill findings into community-friendly reports, collaborate on educational toolkits and campaigns, and help make sense of what the data says—and what it doesn’t. Their goal is to help communities not only access data but truly understand and use it.
Bridging the Gap: Research Meets Community
Data becomes powerful when it connects to real lives. When we begin working with a new police or prosecutor’s office, we start with conversations with agencies and with the communities they serve. This is where the Community Advisory Board (CAB) comes in: a diverse group of community leaders who know their city and care deeply about justice and transparency.
Our research teams engage directly with CABs through:
- Listening sessions to understand what questions people want answered
- Data literacy modules to help community members confidently explore the Commons platform and any other data they may encounter
- Legal context reviews, such as changing statutes and local crime classifications
- Sharing early findings and gathering feedback to make sure the data reflects lived experiences
This collaborative approach supports our Civic Impact team in guiding policy conversations rooted in data and community priorities.
Community-Inspired Change: Stories That Shape the Platform
Community input doesn’t just influence how we talk about the data—it often shapes what we collect and display in the first place. Here are just a couple of examples of how community stories led to tangible features in Commons:
“Do officers respond to every call?”
- This question led us to add filters for call cancellations and new categories within Call Outcome, allowing users to explore when and why a call might not have resulted in an officer showing up.
“During a street fight, no one came for 20 minutes. We were told it was a ‘low priority’ call.”
- That real-life experience spurred the addition of response time measures, with filters for call priority and type, helping communities understand how their local system handles different emergencies.
Why It Matters
Research at MFJ is about more than methodology—it’s about meaning. It’s one thing to build data tools, but it’s another to ensure those tools empower people to ask questions, demand answers, and work toward change. We’ve learned that the data itself doesn’t tell the whole story—the community gives it context, urgency, and direction.
And that’s what makes this work so rewarding: community members see the issues important to them reflected in the numbers and are able to better understand the way different cases are handled by the system, and feel inspired to act.
