Behind the Stories: Verite News, Police Use of Force
Update 12/18/24: Verite Editor in Chief Terry Baquet highlighted this collaboration in his year-end note to supporters.
On Halloween 2024, Verite News in New Orleans published a story that marked the first Gun Violence Data Hub collaboration, “New Orleans police say their use of force data shows no racial disparities. We checked the numbers.”
The story materialized after several months of on-and-off collaboration, all while Trace staff worked on building the Data Hub. We want to share the details of how we chose Verite News as an initial collaborator and what work went into the story from both newsrooms. We hope that by showing how the sausage gets made, others will understand what a Data Hub collaboration looks and feels like. We have a help desk, please reach out.
On Halloween 2024, Verite News in New Orleans published a story that marked the first Gun Violence Data Hub collaboration, “New Orleans police say their use of force data shows no racial disparities. We checked the numbers.”
The story materialized after several months of on-and-off collaboration, all while Trace staff worked on building the Data Hub. We want to share the details of how we chose Verite News as an initial collaborator and what work went into the story from both newsrooms. We hope that by showing how the sausage gets made, others will understand what a Data Hub collaboration looks and feels like. We have a help desk, please reach out.
The decisions
The Data Hub evaluates collaborations with particular emphasis on two variables: local gun violence rates and news desert status. In other words, we want to be helpful in places where it matters. New Orleans has one of the highest gun violence rates in the country.
The word “rate” is important. Focusing exclusively on areas with a high number of shootings means looking only at the nation’s population centers. As The Trace reported earlier this year, gun violence is up everywhere over the past decade: from areas with towns of fewer than 10,000 residents to the country’s megalopolises. We’ll be working well beyond city limits.
The issue of news deserts is a well-identified problem in the industry. The decline of local news institutions over the past several decades means residents don’t have access to the same quality of information, and local public officials and offices aren’t held to the same standards. Several news operations have formed programs to counter this decline, including the New York Times, ProPublica, the Marshall Project, the Associated Press, and Stanford University’s Big Local News.
Count the Data Hub in!
We’re also making a lot of decisions behind the scenes about what data to prioritize for our Spring 2025 data library launch.
We’ve been hard at work getting access to data that’s typically reserved for university researchers and scholars. And already we’ve had industry insiders and government officials reach out to us, wanting to share data.
Amazing! But we’re a four-person team and need to triage what data to process, analyze, and publish. Right now it’s gun deaths all the way down to the county level, intimate partner homicide, and two school-related datasets.
With data in hand, how do we use it to tell stories?
Stay up to date with the latest from the Gun Violence Data Hub.
Sign upThe work
Staff from Verite News and The Trace met at the summer 2024 Investigative Reporters and Editors conference.
After an initial call introducing the Data Hub and exploring Verite’s hopes for gun violence coverage in New Orleans, our research editor here at the Data Hub responded with a memo suggesting several story options. Police use of force became the focus.
The two organizations met virtually on a semi-regular basis, the Data Hub working from New York City on analyzing New Orleans Police Department use of force data, and Verite reporting the subject on the ground locally.
In October, the Data Hub submitted a findings and methods report to Verite. Verite used the report to further its news gathering and weave data into the story. It also had the analysis vetted by subject matter experts, who were able to comment on the findings, and used the document to ask government officials pointed questions about the ongoing trends.
Among the findings were three key facts:
More than 40% of NOPD use of force incidents involved guns.
In each year from 2016 through 2023, Black people accounted for more than 80% of uses of force.
Since 2016, nearly 88% of NOPD use of force incidents in which at least one police firearm was used involved Black civilians, compared to about 8% for white civilians.
Verite News ultimately mixed Data Hub findings into a narrative that examined government reports, cited public officials, advocates and experts, and followed an individual’s personal violent encounter with law enforcement.
“The response has been uniformly complimentary,” Verite Managing Editor Charles Maldonado said in an email.
Neither the city nor the NOPD disputed the reporting, according to Maldonado.
The future
This story exemplifies the kind of collaboration we’re striving for at the Gun Violence Data Hub. We have a long list of potential collaborators; so don’t be surprised if you hear from someone on the team in the coming months.
The Data Hub is also interested in establishing research partnerships with other well-resourced newsrooms and academic institutions to improve our ability to tackle the overwhelming task of providing the most comprehensive gun violence data repository in the U.S.
We’re truly an open door. That’s why we’ve set up the help desk. No question is too small or too big.
If you’re a reporter or editor looking to start or improve gun violence reporting in your area, we have three data journalists at the ready and a deeply engaged managing editor backing us. If you are interested in a research partnership, we’d love to know more about your questions and ambitions. Either way, please reach out!