Waterford, MI – Oakland County is paving the way to easier access to information about law enforcement interactions through a Transparency Dashboard that local law enforcement agencies can make available on their websites.

“Community trust in their government, including law enforcement, is an important part of working together to strengthen the fabric of our communities” said Oakland County Executive Dave Coulter. “We hope communities find the Transparency Dashboard a useful tool to enhance their local transparency efforts.”

In partnership with Oakland County’s Courts and Law Enforcement Management Information System (CLEMIS) and Arx Community, Oakland County led the development of the tool, which features information about citations, arrests, and calls for service. Users can drill down to more detailed information about arrest trends, including breakdown by age, race and gender. Agencies can also add information and data to their dashboards.

Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, and police departments in Novi, Lathrup Village and Southfield helped to develop the dashboard and their data is available as a model. The dashboards are being provided free of charge for the first two years and all agencies are invited to participate.

“We have always been an open book in our service to the community and this is another opportunity for us to showcase that ongoing transparency,” Oakland County Sheriff Michael J. Bouchard said.

“The Novi Police Department has always believed that an open and transparent government is crucial to building public trust,” said Chief David Molloy, director of public safety for the City of Novi. “We applaud County Executive Coulter for his vision in making the Transparency Dashboard a reality.”

The way the dashboard works is, a report is initiated by the law enforcement agency, which is then verified, approved and entered into the CLEMIS records management system. CLEMIS provides the data to Arx Community, which pushes the data to the agencies’ Transparency Dashboard for the public. Refreshing the data every 24 hours ensures that the information is always current.

“The transparency tool is a great tool that we have at our disposal,” said Deputy Chief Jeffrey A. Jagielski of Southfield Police Department. “It lets our community know what we are doing in the best interest of transparency.”

“The feedback I am receiving from my elected officials and the community is all positive. The Transparency Dashboard is a useful tool for the residents, so they can see exactly what their police department is doing,” said Chief of Lathrup Village Police Scott McKee. “I believe this dashboard will aid in bridging the gap and building trust between our police department and the residents we serve.

Oakland County’s CLEMIS is a consortium of criminal justice and public safety agencies that share information with each other. It promotes communication among multiple agencies through its innovative computer technology and sharing of criminal justice information. A total of 126 Michigan police agencies are members of CLEMIS, including every police agency in Oakland County.