Eight Colorado district attorneys — including Boulder County — have unveiled data dashboards meant to increase transparency about how crimes are prosecuted.
The dashboards summarize data about different parts of the prosecution process, like defendant characteristics, felony referrals, case resolution, diversion, sentencing, staffing and more. This is the first statewide initiative by the Prosecutorial Performance Indicators Project, a national effort led by researchers at Loyola University of Chicago and Florida International University.
The dashboards were created through the pilot phase of the Colorado Prosecutorial Dashboards project, which will create the tools and infrastructure needed to scale up use of data in district attorney offices statewide.
Prosecutors worked with researchers using input from the community to create the data dashboards. The public can access the data to gain a better understanding of the work their district attorney’s office does.
“Community safety is our top priority,” Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty said. “As part of that commitment, community members should be able to trust in our justice system. By being transparent and sharing data through this dashboard, the public can view the data and facts for themselves.”
According to the dashboard, the second quarter of 2022 has seen a 10% increase in felony cases filed by the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office compared to the second quarter of 2021 while misdemeanors have seen a 2% increase.
Of charges filed in 2022 through June 30 in Boulder County, most have been traffic offenses, followed by person and property charges. There were 248 violent crimes filed in 2021 and 129 in the first half of 2022.
Offices will use data from the dashboards to improve their understanding of case outcomes for similarly situated defendants, identify promising practices and programs and determine areas where additional training could be useful.
“This dashboard will also allow us to enhance public safety, identify opportunities to address disparities, build trust in our office and improve the justice system for all of our community members,” Dougherty said.
Explore the data for Boulder County, the 20th judicial district, at data.dacolorado.org/20th.
