Following events in Ferguson, Missouri, there has been a lot of talk of putting policing on tape. There has also been talk of how big data can help reduce abuses of power and bring more truth and reconciliation to fraught police-citizen interactions. PC Magazine columnist Ibrahim Abdul-Matin says part of the issue is putting the power of data into the hands of the public.

One of the central problems, he says, is that no one seems to be looking at hard data on this issue.

“If there are bad apple cops, how come we don’t know the data about them until they’ve done something deadly?” Abdul-Matin asked. 

In terms of implementing this system, Abdul-Matin advises implementation with departments that are already using body cameras to record interactions with citizens, and collecting that data for internal use before bringing in crowd sourced information from the public at large.

While this itself won’t fix police-citizen interactions, it would bring a level of confidence in communities that accountability can actually happen, Abdul-Matin said.