Wednesday – October 11, 2023.

Project 2: Initial Post

In Project 2, I’m working with two datasets. The first dataset, “Death Record Data,” is stored in the file /v2/fatal-police-shootings-data.csv. The second dataset, “Police Agencies Data,” can be found in /v2/fatal-police-shootings-agencies.csv. This dataset contains information about police agencies involved in at least one fatal police shooting since 2015.

Dataset 1 (“fatal-police-shootings-data”):

• Description: This dataset comprises 19 columns and 8770 rows, covering the period from January 2, 2015, to October 7, 2023. Several columns have missing values, including “threat_type,” “flee_status,” “armed_with,” “city,” “county,” “latitude,” “longitude,” “location_precision,” “name,” “age,” “gender,” “race,” and “race_source.
• Columns:
  • “threat_type” indicates different threat levels during encounters, such as “point,” “move,” “attack,” and “shoot.”
  • “flee_status” indicates whether the individual attempted to flee.
  • “armed_with” specifies the type of weapon or item the individual had.
  • Location data includes city, county, state, latitude, and longitude, facilitating geographical analysis.
  • Demographic details like name, age, gender, and race are provided.
  • The “mental_illness_related” column indicates if mental illness was a factor in the incident.
  • “body_camera” signifies whether law enforcement officers had active body cameras during the encounter.
  • “agency_ids” may represent the law enforcement agencies involved in these incidents.

Dataset 2 (“fatal-police-shootings-agencies”):

• Description: This dataset includes six columns and 3322 rows. Some entries have missing values in the “oricodes” column.
• Columns:
  • “id” serves as a unique identifier for each law enforcement agency.
  • “name” designates the name of the law enforcement agency, which can include sheriff’s offices, local police departments, state police agencies, and others.
  • The “type” column categorizes the law enforcement agency by type, such as “sheriff,” “local_police,” “state_police,” and more.
  • “state” identifies the state where the law enforcement agency is located.
  • “oricodes” contains a code or identifier associated with the law enforcement agency.
  • “total_shootings” records the total number of shootings or incidents involving the respective law enforcement agency.

Summary:

The datasets in Project 2 provide valuable information about law enforcement encounters and police agencies involved in fatal incidents. Dataset 1 focuses on individual cases, their characteristics, and the circumstances, while Dataset 2 offers insights into the law enforcement agencies, their types, locations, and their involvement in such incidents. Further analysis or specific questions about the data would require additional context and particular queries.