The proposal to collect data and analyze more than 100 million highway patrol stops is one of 17 winning projects selected by Knight Foundation

New York, NY – New York University’s Center for Urban Science & Progress (CUSP) research scientist Ravi Shroff is a member of one of the winning projects of the prestigious John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s Knight News Challenge. The proposal is one of 17 winning projects of the Knight News Challenge on Data announced yesterday at an event at Civic Hall in New York.

The Knight News Challenge on Data funds breakthrough ideas that make data work for individuals and communities. This year’s challenge called upon entrants to answer the following question: “How might we make data work for individuals and communities?” Led by Sharad Goel, Shroff and his colleagues submitted a proposal called “Law, Order & Algorithms: Making Sense of 100 Million Highway Patrol Stops,” aiming to bring greater transparency, accountability and equity to police interactions with the public during highway stops.

“Traffic stops represent one of the most common ways citizens interact with law enforcement. Accordingly, our intent in compiling, cleaning, analyzing, and releasing this large, geographically comprehensive dataset of police stops is to enable policymakers, law enforcement officials, and the public to work together to improve our criminal justice system in a rigorous, evidence-based manner,” said Shroff.

The project team put together a plan to collect, clean, release, and About New York University’s Center for Urban Science & Progress more than 100 million highway patrol stops throughout the U.S. spanning the last several years, ultimately creating one of the most comprehensive national datasets of police interactions with the public. By creating and releasing such a comprehensive study, a vast collection of empirical data on police behavior would be available for local law enforcement agencies, researchers, public officials, journalists and community advocacy groups to use.

“The project reveals the power of data to unlock useful information and increase people’s understanding of everyday issues that affect their lives,” said John Bracken, Knight Foundation vice president for media innovation.

The project lead is Sharad Goel, an assistant professor at Stanford in the Department of Management Science & Engineering. Team members included Ravi Shroff, a research scientist at NYU CUSP, Vignesh Ramachandran of Stanford Computational Journalism Lab, and Camelia Simoiu and Sam Corbett-Davies of Stanford’s School of Engineering.

Knight Foundation is the leading funder of journalism and media innovation in the nation, seeking the next generation of innovations that will inform and engage communities. Knight’s mission is to promote informed and engaged communities. The foundation does that by investing in innovations in media and journalism, community engagement and the arts.

To learn more about the Knight News Challenge, visit www.newschallenge.org

About New York University’s Center for Urban Science & Progress

CUSP is a university-wide center whose research and education programs are focused on urban informatics. Using NYC as its lab, and building from its home in the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, it integrates and applies NYU strengths in the natural, data, and social sciences to understand and improve cities throughout the world. CUSP offers a one-year MS degree in Applied Urban Science & Informatics. For more news and information on CUSP, please visit https://cusp.nyu.edu. Follow NYU CUSP on Twitter @NYU_CUSP.

About Knight Foundation

Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts. The foundation believes that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. For more, visit knightfoundation.org.

CONTACTS: 

Kim Alfred, CUSP

917-392-0859
kim.alfred@nyu.edu

Elizabeth Latino, The Marino Organization
212-889-0808
elizabeth@themarino.org