Measuring crime in schools
By Gavin Off
I drive by an elementary school on my way to work every day. More than once there’s been a police cruiser idling in the school’s parking lot with lights flashing and the officer standing nearby.
Although those incidents never involved a major crime, on several occasions this year the Tulsa World has chronicled arrests at schools.
The Latest
By Jeff Donn
The latest installment of The Associated Press’ PharmaWater investigation seemed unlikely at the initial story conference: no ready data and seemingly nothing to expose. Our national investigative team had broken the story this past year that tens of millions of Americans drink from water supplies that test positive for trace pharmaceuticals. They cover the gamut from antibiotics to psychiatric drugs to sex hormones, mostly in the form of unmetabolized medicines excreted by people.
By Ben Poston
Covering the early stages of the federal stimulus package was frustrating. Much of the data available at the state level were just multimillion-dollar allocations going to existing federal programs or to state agencies to divvy up through competitive grants. Back in March, there wasn’t much detail provided on how and where the money was being spent.
By Yang Liu
Some gun-rights advocates responded angrily when they found that a searchable database of Tennessee gun permit holders was posted on the Web site of the Commercial Appeal in Memphis. Many complained that their right to privacy had been violated. In turn, journalists have been debating the ethics of posting raw data on news organization Web sites and asking how those databases can serve journalism.
By Brynn Gingras
In recent years, police use of Tasers as a safer alternative to other forms of deadly force has come under great scrutiny. More and more police departments across the country are being questioned about whether they’re using the electronic stun guns properly. [CBC News recently examined Taser use across Canada.] Here, two journalists explain through e-mail interviews how they used computer-assisted reporting to analyze Taser use by their local police departments.
By Nick McClellan
As news outlets struggle to make bottom line, journalists might look for new ways to save some cash. Fortunately, journalists doing CAR can look toward no-cost open-source database managers as powerful alternatives to commercial software. Open-source database applications like MySQL and PostgreSQL are more resilient than commercial software applications, such as Microsoft Access, and offer more powerful capabilities for analyzing and synthesizing data.
By Erica Nochlin
Editor’s note: In his recent Uplink article, Michael J. Berens of The Seattle Times showed how hospital admission data helped him uncover the scope of drug-resistant infections. But getting medical data is often difficult for journalists because of privacy rules.
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