<aside> 💡 Tags are keywords applied to datasets that describe the data in a non-hierarchical way. We’re applying tags to the APCO standard for 911 incident types. The tags give us a better sense of the types of 911 incidents that don’t require an armed law enforcement response.
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| What | Reimagine911 staff and volunteers work together to: • Identify tags - We identify useful tags by talking to subject-matter experts in the 911/incident diversion field. • Apply tags - Then we apply the tags in Airtable to the most recent list of APCO 911 incident types. • Review tags - We review the tags as a group and synthesize the codes that have a particular tag. | | --- | --- | | Where | We meet via Zoom and check in with each other in the #r911-sprint-classification Slack channel. Reimagine911 staff and volunteers also do this work individually on their own time and provide updates to each other in the Slack channel. | | When | • During business hours (EST) - Fridays from 2:30 to 3:30pm • After business hours (EST) - Wednesdays from 6 to 7pm | | Why | Our goal with adding tags to APCO codes is to get a better sense of the types of 911 incidents that don’t require an armed law enforcement response. After tagging APCO codes, we can merge the table of APCO codes that are tagged and data of standardized 911 incidents from different cities in our Data Standardization work. This merged dataset will make analysis across cities easier. |
Tags won’t apply to all situations categorized under an APCO code because a code could include a variety of incidents.
<aside> 💡 Example - Not all individual 911 incidents categorized under the APCO code ASSAULT (WITH OR WITHOUT INJURY*)* involve alcohol. But some assaults do involve alcohol.
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It’s still useful to document this “sometimes” relationship between assault and alcohol because we’re standardizing large datasets across multiple jurisdictions. Jurisdictions record 911 incidents in different ways with different definitions.
Tags connect APCO codes in a non-hierarchical way.
<aside> 💡 Example - We tagged the APCO codes CU2 (CIVIL UNREST NON-VIOLENT) and DMPX (PERSON DUMPING RUBBISH, IN PROGRESS) with “Non life-threatening.”
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With tags, we can draw a relationship between seemingly unrelated 911 incidents, like non-violent civil unrest and dumping rubbish. Applied to large datasets across multiple jurisdictions, we start to understand the volume of incidents that may not require an armed law enforcement response.