NICAR talk
Tracking crime in your community
FBI Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) is one of the best tools for tracking crime trends in communities nationwide; FBI UCR data for 2014 is now available from the NICAR data library. Law enforcement agencies around the country voluntarily submit reports to the FBI on what are known as “index” crimes: Murder, nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated…
Read MoreInvestigate safety trends around college and university campuses
The most recent reports on alleged campus crime, arrests, discipline and hate crimes reported for 2014 are now available in the NICAR data library. Buy it here. What’s in it? The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act is a federal law that requires colleges and universities to disclose certain timely and annual information about campus crime and security…
Read MoreDownload our free data on SBA disaster loans
NICAR’s Small Business Administration (SBA) Disaster Loans data is now updated with loans approved through February 18, 2016. The disaster loans are the only form of SBA assistance not limited to small businesses; the loans help homeowners, renters, businesses and nonprofit organizations finance their rebuilding after a federally-declared disaster has destroyed their property. The data…
Read MoreIs your state keeping up with bridge repairs?
Now updated for 2015, the National Bridge Inventory database can help you assess the soundness of bridges in your area. Journalists can use the data to investigate bridges by identifying those with structural problems, or that haven’t been recently inspected. Other key fields include average daily traffic and overall sufficiency rating. The records represent information from the…
Read MoreUse NICAR’S fatal accident data on deadline
We’ve updated our simple, one-table database on fatal accidents in the US; the data now has information on every reported accident from 2003 through 2014. We created the data from the full DOT Fatality Analysis Reporting System database (FARS), which has 19 tables and almost 800 columns of detailed information about fatal car accidents. The…
Read MoreAdd context to stories on car crashes, seatbelt safety and drunken driving using FARS data
How many people die in car accidents? Sometimes you’ll see the answer to that question flashing on a billboard on the highway. It’s also in the DOT’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) database, a census of fatality accidents on public roads in all fifty states and the District of Columbia. You can use the data…
Read MoreInvestigate small business loans in your community
Which businesses in your area are receiving loans backed by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA)? What financial institutions are making those loans? How many businesses receiving loans in the past 10 years have stayed open? These are questions you can answer with the SBA’s 7a loan data, now available at NICAR. This update database…
Read MoreHow to examine fatal car crashes involving drunken drivers
Police typically conduct sober checkpoints around the holidays, especially New Year’s Eve. Add context to your stories about holiday safety and travel by looking to look at trends in fatal crashes where drugs and alcohol were noted as a factor. We’ll walk you through how to quickly gather statistics and come up with story ideas…
Read MoreStanford students write a review of data tools
NICAR is adding a review of data tools to its online resources, courtesy of Stanford journalism students. Nineteen journalism and computer science students paired up in a new, 10-week data journalism class with the goal of exploring how programming techniques can assist in investigative reporting. The students analyzed documents and data in various formats, from…
Read MoreNICAR Q&A with Nathaniel Lash
Nathaniel Lash Nathaniel Lash is a data reporter for the Tampa Bay Times. He was part of a team of journalists who worked on “Failure Factories,” a series that explored how five Pinellas County schools became some of the worst in Florida. How would you describe your job? I work at the Tampa Bay…
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