Problem 2: Need to Clearly Define Problem Statement and Additional Hills

[schottr1]

Is your suggestion related to a problem? Please describe. It is important that the problem statement be written with clarity so the solutions being proposed and assessed can be evaluated effectively. I feel that the Problem Statement # 2 and associated hill needs to be revised to clearly state the user base and objective. Below is the current Problem Statement:

Problem Statement 2: "The lack of transparent and accurate data available to assess police behavioral infractions means police reports can be falsified and contain other inaccuracies."

This statement identifies two different but related issues:

1. Lack of transparent and accurate data to assess police behavioral infractions
2. Police reports can be falsified and contain other inaccuracies

The one Hill described doesn’t address the identified problem. It proposes using “technology to screen and expedite police reports for inherent biases while flagging incident reports for immediate review so that issues/incidents are addressed proactively with immediate consequences.” The problem statement identifies the lack of transparency and accuracy of available data and the ability for police reports to be falsified or inaccurate. It does not identify any issues with inherent bias being a cause for either of these two issues.

What is your proposed solution? Revise the Problem Statement to be the following:

Problem Statement 2: The process of collecting accurate, complete, and verifiable police incidence response data and the ability for appropriate parties that provide management oversight, and compliance verification is susceptible inaccuracies and false claims documented in the police reports, inadequate and biased analysis and review of the incidence, and clarity and transparency in identifying systemic issues both in reporting accuracy and behavior for an individual or group of individual police officers. This problem could potentially create the following issues:

1. Police officers that are responding to incidents are inaccurately reporting the response and the situation leading to the response in existing police reporting systems.
2. The police management, police departments, or other related organizations (DA, Internal Affairs, labor unions) are either intentionally or unintentionally not adequately collecting, investigating, or assessing the police officer response information.
3. The police departments are not providing the data with appropriate transparency to oversight organizations or the public to assess the correctness of police responses to incidents and to raise concerns.

We would develop a Hill for each of the above three potential issues.

What is the impact of your solution Revising the Problem Statement and Hills will lead to better alignment of the proposed solution(s) to the problem statement.

[henrynash]

While I understand the issue you are raising, the first sentence of the proposed solution is, I fear, too complex to understand. While it probably needs a better wordsmith than me, maybe something along the following lines might be better:

The process of collecting accurate, complete, and verifiable police incidence response data is hampered by any inaccuracies and false claims documented in the original police reports. In addition, the lack of adequate and unbiased review and analysis of the incidence, and clarity and transparency in identifying systemic issues both in reporting accuracy and behavior for an individual or group of individual police officers, leads to further degradation in the quality of the response data. Since the appropriate parties that provide management oversight, and compliance verification also depend on the quality of this data, their ability to provide governance is significantly reduced. These problems are caused by the following issues:

<then the 3 points you had suggested>