Now that I’ve scanned through the report, I can make a better judgment. Forgive my seemingly flippant remark about 1 in 375, but, being a relative novice to actual crime statistics, I had to check that for myself.

On to the GoogleMap (which, btw, throws a Javascript error on IE6/XP or IE7/Vista). I read through a number of the vignettes in the report, are all very moving. The use of a Google maps mashup, I feel, trivializes the tragedies. It’s great for marketing stuff, but I just don’t feel it works here. a flash-based interactive map would better show the numbers for different levels of government.

To make this story truly connect with readers, I’d suggest two things. One, continuing to push for a live database, and a public awareness campaign (so people know where to file).

Two, we do need “small multiples” in order to escape the mundanity of text. I’d suggest having the ACLU ask its members to volunteer and take photos of victims of botched raids– by their front doors, perhaps.

Thank you. I was unable to find the link for downloading the full report.
The page that Dan links to goes to here:
http://www.catostore.org/index.asp?fa=ProductDetails&method=cats&scid=15&pid=1441318

which suggests that the only way to get it is to order it. I am not against paying the $10, but I just suppose that, like Dan said, a journalist might be able to make better use of it.

I am not ordinarily a subscriber to the Cato philosophy, and I am fortunate that I live in a part of Boston which does not have many unannounced drug busts– at least I think so. I have talked to Dan in the past about improving the live data feeds to enable “realtime reporting.”

I noticed also that the much-lauded ChicagoCrime website does not include botched raids on its map; that is unfortunate as well.

Jon

Cato Institute has a Google map of SWAT and paramilitary police raids in USA where innocents were harmed: Botched Paramilitary Police Raids, along with their policy paper  “Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids.”
……

Your concerns are addressed in the full report. And I’m not sure what you mean by “paywall.” If you want a bound, hard copy of the report, Cato charges $10. But you can download a copy of the full report for free.

Radley Balko

The map shows 296 incidents over 22 years, with 4 in my state. Balko estimates that there are 40,000 false raids– which sounds alarming, though there the number of arrests in the U.S. is 14 million (!). So for every botched raid, there are 375 arrests. Now, it’s quite likely that certain communities are affected more than others, and that in itself should be cause for alarm. Perhaps that’s in the full report; I don’t know. Note that the full report is behind the same theoretical “paywall” that the NYT is begrudged for being behind.

Curious what happened at the House Subcommittee hearing on June 21st when Balko spoke… the last update of the subcommittee page is from 6/14.

I suppose that one answer could be requiring better data reporting. Remember, one of the consequences of the Rodney King beating was installing cameras in squad cars.