Minnesota Department of Public Safety officials unveiled a new online dashboard that law enforcement leaders say will help them and the state’s statewide police force be more “accountable and disciplined.”
“It’s very interactive in that you can click on any of these tiles and you can get further information, rooted in data, about what is going on within the Minnesota State Patrol,” said Colonel Matt Langer of the state patrol at a news conference Monday.
Langer said the dashboard will offer users a chance to click through data about 911 calls, use of aviation tools, or even uses of force, among other categories.
““You can also drill down again to see more information about pursuits, you can see the actual type of use of force that were used and really can dissect at your pleasure the information that’s provided,” said Langer.
Officials hope this presents more information to the public first-hand, some of which was only accessible after a public records request or through reporting by the media.
“We sometimes think about accountability as a negative or discipline as a negative, but if you think of an organization that operates with accountability in tact, you think favorable of them,” said Langer. “If you have kids who teachers say they’re very discipline, we think of that as a very favorable way to describe each other.”
The dashboard is online now, and will always be updated and could evolve over time, said Langer.
“It’s not the end, finished product, because we anticipate that this will grow and change in the future as we respond to questions that might come up or have discovered areas where the public is more interested in areas of the dashboard that can be expanded,” he said.