Today, the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) of SC presented the Columbia Police Department (CPD) with the Palmetto Award for Digital Communications. The award is in recognition of the steps the department has taken to make law enforcement data accessible and open to the public through a public data portal.
“We are working diligently to add new data and keep data current to enhance the community’s engagement with, and understanding of, the Columbia Police Department,” stated Police Chief Skip Holbrook. “We will continue to add new combinations of data of interest to our citizens to the public data portal, to demonstrate transparency and strengthen problem solving partnerships.”
CPD is one of more than 130 law enforcement agencies in the country participating in the Police Data Initiative, a national effort focused on technology and transparency and supported by the Police Foundation and the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office).
CPD datasets currently housed in the portal include arrests, assaults on officers and field interviews. Additional datasets such as calls for service, use of force and officer involved shootings will be added to the portal in the near future. The public data portal can be accessed by logging into http://coc-colacitygis.opendata.arcgis.com/ or by way of link from CPD’s website at www.columbiapd.net. To find out more about the Police Data Initiative, please visit www.policedatainitiative.org.
The Palmetto Awards were created in 1999 to recognize the outstanding work in the communications field and foster professional development among communicators. The awards provide the opportunity for communicators to display their talents in communication planning, publication writing and design, feature writing, electronic communication, and public relations and crisis communication campaigns.
