Tagged: Data

Political constraint data updated

In the email from Witold Henisz:

You are receiving this email as you are one of over 7,500 unique users of the Political Constraint Database. I have just posted the 2013 release with data up to and including 2012 (as compared to the 2010 release which included data to 2007). To access the new release, please proceed to the following website http://mgmt5.wharton.upenn.edu/henisz/POLCON/ContactInfo.html NB: Contact information is collected only to send these periodic notices regarding newly available data.

Thank you for your interest in this data and please continue to forward to me any data anomalies or inconsistencies that you identify. Much of the expansion in coverage was made possible by users who identified sources for election results that I had previously been unable to find.

As always, the data is available without charge but I do request that all users cite the following publication:

Henisz, W. J. 2000. The Institutional Environment for Economic Growth. Economics and Politics, 12(1): 1-31.

Best,

Witold.

Data Notes: Policing and Responders

New from ICPSR:

Data Notes: The Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies

Another in a series of posts highlighting useful data for those working in the field of public management.

The Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies are high-quality data on a whole range of law enforcement agencies that should receive greater use in our field. One nice advantage here is the range includes both special-purpose and general-purpose organizations. Another is the variation at the state level of how tasks are divided across the types of agencies.

Presents the results of the Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies, which is conducted every four years and covers approximately 18,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide. This report includes the number of state and local law enforcement agencies as of September 2008 and the number of sworn and civilian employees. Breakdowns are presented for general purpose agencies, including local police departments, sheriffs’ offices, and primary state law enforcement agencies. The report also provides data for agencies that serve special jurisdictions “such as parks, college campuses, airports, or transit systems” or that have special enforcement responsibilities pertaining to laws in areas such as natural resources, alcohol, or gaming.

Highlights include the following:

State and local law enforcement agencies employed about 1,133,000 persons on a full-time basis in 2008, including 765,000 sworn personnel.
About half (49%) of all agencies employed fewer than 10 full-time officers. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of sworn personnel worked for agencies that employed 100 or more officers.
From 2004 to 2008, state and local law enforcement agencies added about 9,500 more full-time sworn personnel than during the previous 4-year period.

Data Notes: Immigration and Prosecution Data from the Field

In a regular series, here’s an update on new data on immigration and prosecution from the field.

From TRAC:

A total of 15,173 Federal criminal prosecutions were recorded as being filed during April 2011, according to the most recent data released by the Department of Justice. Immigration charges again took the top two spots for the most frequent lead charges brought. Illegal entry — with 4,782 defendants charged, up sharply in April — was the charge most commonly recorded, followed by illegal reentry with 3,047 prosecutions. The judicial district with the most federal prosecutions in April was Arizona with 3,216, down slightly from 3,428 prosecutions in that state recorded during March.

Thinking about Data Quality When Organizing Agencies

I find this fascinating: a view inside an agency’s thought processes about organizational measures that will (or could) affect how the public, politicians, or pundits perceive the usefulness and quality of agency-generated data. From the Bureau of Justice Statistics:

However, the methodological challenges involved in filling these major gaps preclude doing so under BJS’s current funding; it would require increased and sustained support in terms of staff and fiscal resources. Two strong organizational measures are suggested to reduce the likelihood that BJS and its officials are inappropriately treated in the future: 1) BJS’s current administrative position within the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) is detrimental to the agency’s function, it is recommended that BJS be moved out of OJP; and 2) that the position of BJS director be made a fixed-term presidential appointment with Senate confirmation.

Note the two parts of the recommendation:

  • Moving the agency.
  • Fixing the term and changing the appointment/removal process.

The former is pretty run-of-the-mill, but it says a lot about how the designers see OJP inside Main Justice.

The more interesting recommendation is to go to a fixed term. The question is always “how long?”, with the natural answer being “something longer than 4 years”.

It’s like an IRC (without party-balancing rules) for criminal justice data collection efforts. Another interesting example of attempts to politicize and then de-politicize agencies (note the date: 2009).

Data Notes: Useful Law Enforcement Data for a Dissertation

Rarely used in Public Administration studies, but useful and of fairly high quality, the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) are machine-readable, available since 1987, and cover a variety of state and local LEAs:

Every three to four years, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) surveys a nationally representative sample of state and local law enforcement agencies. The surveys are conducted as part of the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) program. Data include agency personnel, expenditures and pay, operations, community policing initiatives, equipment, computers and information systems, and written policies. The LEMAS survey has been conducted in 1987, 1990, 1993, 1997, 1999 (limited scope), 2000, 2003, and 2007.

Again, I can’t name a single PA study that has used these data. Maybe I should recommend these data for a student seeking dissertation material. Have any of y’all used them?