Local journalist Eva Ruth Moravec and former UT research analyst (and current Penn Law research fellow) Amanda Woog launched the Texas Justice Initiative, a nonprofit focused on transparency and accountability in the state’s criminal justice system. The two celebrated the launch with a release of two data sets (and corresponding analyses of them), one documenting statewide officer-involved shootings since September of 2015 (following that year’s passage of House Bill 1036, requiring documentation of such incidents) and another that tracks in-custody deaths, a long-held but poorly observed state law. “By releasing both our analyses and the complete datasets, we are empowering all Texans to better understand how the public interacts with law enforcement,” said Moravec in a press release announcing the organization’s launch. “The Office of the Attorney General is only a receptacle for this information. It’s up to TJI to provide oversight, analysis, context, and information to the public.” See both data sets at www.data.world/tji and the analyses at www.texasjusticeinitiative.org.
This article appears in June 8 • 2018.